What an awesome week to be a sports fan! We had controversy, two champions crowned, sorrow, pain, and joy for fan bases who have never felt what they're feeling now. Both the Blue and the Raptors took home the championship trophies for their respective sports this week and both teams proved they were the best teams in their sport as they did it. The Blues won Game 7 on the road in convincing fashion and the Raptors closed out the Warriors in their last game ever at Oracle Arena.
The Women's World Cup also kicked off this week and everyone already hates America, plus Kevin Durant's return and injury was the Warriors' worst case scenario for this post-season. What happens to him after this? Tres' Three Pointers starts right not! (Cue Sports Center music)
1) The Toronto Raptors are your 2019 NBA Champions and they deserve all the credit in the world for dethroning the Warriors!
In the moment, many haters will point to the Warriors’ injuries as the reason the Raptors won, but as time passes all we’ll remember is that the Raptors were NBA Champions as they went on one of the best post-season runs we have ever seen.
Think back to late April…The Raptors lost their first game of the playoffs against the Magic! After game one, tons of people overreacted, and we thought this Raptors’ team were soft and still mentally weak. They proved us wrong then by beating the Magic four games in a row.
In the next round, the Raptors advanced on the greatest buzzer beater in NBA history as Kawhi’s shot bounced around every part of the rim before finally falling. They had beaten the 76ers who were considered to be a title contender before the NBA season began.
They then went on to beat the Milwaukee Bucks, the best team record wise and statistically all season long. They embarrassed the Bucks game after game as they struggled to generate any sort of offense in the half court. Coming into that series, Milwaukee was averaging 117.5 points per game in the playoffs. In the series against Toronto, that average dropped to 106.7. ELEVEN POINTS LESS THAN THEIR AVERAGE! Fred Van Vleet also had a national coming out party as he shot approximately 155% from three after having his kid. Kawhi Leonard knocked down deep two after deep two before eventually grabbing the series clinching offensive rebound that spurred the Raptors into the NBA Finals!
As the series began, the Raptors were heavy underdogs, even though they had the better top to bottom roster with Durant still sidelined for the Warriors. The Raptors stuck to their game plan, played amazing defense and then took down the Warriors’ dynasty.
Overall, it was an amazing run by an amazing team. We have never seen a trade pay off so well in the first season like this one did for Kawhi Leonard and the Raptors. Masai Ujiri deserves all the credit in the world for having the guts to make this big of a trade.
Ultimately, I think two factors contributed more to the Raptor's championship run than anything else: defense and teamwork.
Defense wins championships (it's a cliche because it's true) and teamwork is the most important characteristic of any championship team.
Every championship team also needs glue guys who know they role and can step up in the biggest moments because they aren’t afraid of the spotlight. Think of Steve Kerr with the Bulls, Derek Fisher with the Lakers, Robert Horry with every team, and Andre Iguodala with the Warriors. No matter how many stars a team has, they cannot win a title without depth and great teamwork.
That’s why the Miami Heat won titles in 2012 in 2013. That’s also partially why the Warriors lost this year.
Their star filled roster meant they had to sacrifice their depth that made them so good three years ago. One or two losses to important players and they couldn’t make up the gap. If the Raptors lost one player (like how they lost OG Anunoby), they had another who could step into the spotlight.
The Raptors’ defense was dominant all post-season long and when you take a look at the numbers, it’s obvious why they won the title. The Raptors defining quality on defense is their activity and aggressiveness. They never let up and they fly around on defense to get their hands in the way of every pass and every shot.
Watch this defensive possession by the Raptors. VanVleet pursues Cook off the ball, Ibaka has his hands straight up to deny any ball entry into the post. Lowry pokes the ball away from Livingston and then comes over to crowd Klay with a double team. Then both Ibaka and Siakam go straight up to contest Looney's layup. Then the Raptors hustle down the court, grab their own miss, and knock down a three. This is the play of champions.
Just look at how hard they are competing on defense in this play. Golden State had no chance to get a good shot off here. Even look back at Game 5, Lowry’s ability to block Boogie’s shot here is because of how fast he’s moving and how hard he’s playing.
Because of their incredible defense, the Raptors were able to force the Warriors into 100 total turnovers for the series. Compare that to the Raptors’ turnovers which were only 77, and it’s obvious that the Warriors couldn’t take care of the ball enough in order to generate enough offense to beat the Raptors. Game 6 was the ultimate culmination of this as the Raptors forced the Draymond Green to commit 8 turnovers on offense.
Coming into the Finals, Golden State was averaging 117 points per game and the Raptors limited them to 105.8 for the series. That’s an even better margin than against the Bucks! Even if you take out the games Kevin Durant missed, the Warriors were averaging 115.4 without him in the playoffs. So basically the Raptors took away 10-12 Warriors’ points per game because of their great defense and turnovers.
Next, the Raptors teamwork was impeccable and a joy to watch throughout the series. They basically played 7 guys (plus Powell during some stretches) since Round 2 against the 76ers, and because of that every guy knew their role on both sides of the ball and each player had perfected what they needed to do against the highest level of competition.
The Raptors had 7 players scored 17 or more points during the series and each player for the Raptors’ directly contributed to every win they had in one way or another.
I said before the series that Toronto’s role players would need to be awesome this series in order to win and they did that in just about every facet. Each player in the Raptors’ seven man rotation won them a game.
Without Kawhi Leonard to get buckets when the Raptors’ offense went stagnant, the Raptors’ couldn’t have won this series. His long arms also disrupted dozens of Warriors’ possessions and allowed him to grab the series winning defensive rebound that then resulted in the Draymond Green technical foul.
The Raptors’ needed Kyle Lowry to make Klay’s life hard on offense which he did over and over again throughout this series. His irrational confidence game in Game 3 propelled them to a victory in Oracle. Then to start Game 6, Lowry scored 11 straight points to start the game which gave the Raptors’ the start they needed as they went 3-0 on the road in these Finals.
The Raptors needed Siakam to have a near perfect shooting night in Game 1 in order for them to put the Warriors in a hole, and his three 3-pointers in the first half in Game 6 provided the shooting spark the Raptors needed when only Kyle Lowry had it going to start the game.
Danny Green’s incredible Game 3 was what the Raptors needed to overcome Curry’s 47 points and put the Warriors in a bigger hole.
Fred VanVleet hounded Curry for six games as well as any defender has done in the Finals since Matthew Dellavedova. However, unlike Delly, VanVleet’s shot was money all series and his four threes in the 4th quarter of Game 6 closed out the Warriors for good.
Serge Ibaka played five good games in a row in the Finals and his offensive rebounding on switches by the Warriors prevented them from getting out and running.
It also led to dozens of second chance opportunities in the series including this offensive rebound and three by Kawhi in the 3rd quarter of Game 6.
These second chance opportunities kept the Warriors out of transition as well and allowed the Raptors to set up their half-court defense. His shot blocking was also crucial in Games 3 and 4 as the Raptors stole two games in a row on the road.
Marc Gasol’s playmaking and 20 points in Game 1 gave the Raptors an early lead in this series and his offensive rebounding in Game 6 proved to lead to three VanVleet free throws.
His size also prevented the Warriors from going too small throughout the entire series…and when the Warriors did play small, as they did to start game 5, Gasol killed them by scoring in the post almost every time he caught the ball down low.
The Raptors needed their whole team to close this series out in six games and they played an incredibly high level of basketball as they brought the Warriors’ dynasty tumbling to the ground.
Kawhi Leonard deserved Finals MVP because of his incredible play throughout the Playoffs, but the Raptors also wouldn’t be here without Kyle Lowry. He has taken crap, sometimes rightly so, for his play and his poor playoff performance. But tonight he stepped up on the biggest stage, and because of that he deserves much of the recognition for the Raptors winning the Finals.
I’m sad to see basketball end, but I was really happy with the final two games that we got in this series and the future of the NBA changed again in Game 6. There are so many questions left to answer and very little time to get to them. In one week, the NBA draft starts and in two weeks, free agency begins. The Warriors may truly be in shambles and I do not envy the job of Bob Myers as he tries to figure this whole situation out before July 1. I will talk about the Warriors’ future down the road (especially with the Klay injury), but for now let’s appreciate the greatness of the Raptors and what they accomplished because they are the 2019 NBA Champions!
P.S. I’m so happy for Jodie Meeks and Jeremy Lin! They seem like two incredibly great guys who are the ultimate team players. They deserve to be NBA Champions.
*Raptors photo found on SkySports.com
*Stats and Info retrieved from NBA.com
2) Did the USWNT score too many goals? Did they celebrate too much? No. They did not.
On Tuesday afternoon this week, the USWNT opened up World Cup group play by obliterating Thailand in historic fashion, 13-0. Our team only scored 3 goals by halftime, and by all accounts the game was over by then.
However, after halftime, our team put on a goal-scoring clinic in unbelievably dominating fashion. Alex Morgan finished with 5 goals and 3 assists, and Rose Lavelle scored an additional two goals to lead us to a victory. I was wildly entertained because this victory reminded me just how dominant our national team is.
There seemed to be a surprisingly negative backlash to our team scoring 13 total goals against Thailand. Most of the logic behind arguments against our Women’s Team was that it was unsportsmanlike and that we should have laid off because we were clearly superior talent-wise. Former Women’s Canadian team players for TSN called the move “classless” and to that I say they are absolutely wrong!
I had absolutely no problem with what happened on Tuesday!
It would have been wildly more insulting and classless to just stop scoring goals and kick the ball around the middle of the field until time expired. As professionals you want to compete at the highest level and our U.S. Women’s Team is the pinnacle of competition. Our team plays at a level every country should strive to reach.
Also if you have a problem with our team scoring too many goals, try to stop them! It’s not easy to do, but the Women’s Team wasn’t exactly being super aggressive on offense in the second half either. They were just getting easy looks because of their superior talent and play. Do you want them to not shoot the ball at a wide-open net when they have the opportunity?
Women’s Soccer is divided into tiers (in my opinion):
The top tier is: the U.S., France, Canada, Japan, Germany, England, Australia, and Brazil.
After that is Korea through Mexico (10-20 or so)
Then it’s everyone else.
Just like in high school and college sports, there are massive talent drop offs in tiers so there are going to be blowouts due to superior talent. I have been on both ends of major blowouts and every time I’m on the losing end of one, the team we were playing (whether in basketball or football) never took their foot off the gas and I would be insulted if they did.
On top of all this, the Women’s World Cup Group Stages have a goal differential component to them so if you want to win your group you need to win the most matches and score the most goals. You can’t afford to take a risk and not score as much as you can when you know that you could have an easier matchup in the elimination stages if you have far and away the best record/goal differential.
Another argument against the Women’s National Team is, “if I was in their position, I wouldn’t have done that” – this in regard to our team celebrating every goal and scoring “too many goals”.
That argument is weak for multiple reasons. First, you aren’t in their position so you have no idea if you would or not. Until you are on either end of a blowout and you actually act in that situation, you don’t know how you’d act. Secondly, you have to have context for the goals and celebrations.
For example, when Alex Morgan scored her 5th goal, she tied Michelle Akers’ 1991 record for most goals by a single player in a women’s World Cup match! Of course you celebrate that goal! Then there were other players like Mallory Pugh and Rose Lavelle who were playing (and scoring) in their first ever World Cup games. These are things that players work their entire lives towards! I’d be celebrating like crazy too. Finally, everyone who is hating on our team is just jealous because they aren’t as good as us!
This overabundance of goals probably won’t happen again after the elimination stages begin and it isn’t uncommon for blowouts to happen early on in tournaments like this. This game was like the equivalent of a 16 versus a 1 in the NCAA Tournament. Those games almost always end in blowouts.
One final, final note. Can we just get our women’s team equal pay with the men please? They are most exciting, they’re better, and they make more headlines than the men which generates more content – because they are way more successful.
*Cover image taken from USA Today
2) Kevin Durant and how his injury affects the future of the NBA
Kevin Durant is, without a doubt, one of the three best players in the world. He’s a top 20 player of all time, climbing up the list yearly, and he’s is one of the best scorers to ever play the game. That’s why when he went planted his foot to drive left and tore his Achilles on Monday night, I was devastated, along with the rest of the NBA world. It felt like we were witnessing a turning point in NBA history.
When it comes to the injury itself, I’m not sure there is any one person to blame. Due to medical privacy laws and protections by both the team and NBA Players' Association, we’ll probably never see what the actual cause of the injury was - whether it was random or related to the calf – unless Woj or Shams leak the info somehow.
Medically, every player has a chance of injuring themselves on every play. That’s just the nature of being human and playing sports. Every time you plant and run, you put stress on our Achilles and stretch it out. Eventually as we get older, the body begins to fall apart and the muscles we have been pulling at tear and rupture.
Kevin Durant’s injury is over now though. He had successful surgery on his ruptured Achilles and now he’s on the road to recovery. However, the fallout from this injury is still being processed because it not only affects him, but it affects the entire NBA as it caused a seismic shift to occur.
Kevin Durant’s personal future is affected by this obviously, so he’s the first on the list of parties affected. He was set up to be a free-agent this offseason if he opted out of his player contract. He could earn $221 over 5 years if he re-signs with the Warriors and about $160 over 4 years with every other team. Either way, a team will be paying him roughly $38 million to sit out next year while he rehabs. Now, some teams may not give him that much money given the history of Achilles tear comebacks.
If Durant decides not to find out his value on the open market, he still has a one-year player option for 31.5 million with the Warriors if he wants to be safe and just rehab before going out again on the open market.
Although, according to Woj, Kevin Durant opting in “is his last resort”. His last day to opt in would be June 30th. If he opts in, that will be an indication that no other team out there is willing to give him a long-term deal and a chance to prove he can still be the same player pre-injury.
However, despite the uncertainty around his ability to be a superstar post return from injury in 2021, I think most teams out there are still willing to give him the full max because he is that great of a player.
Speaking of teams, this injury affects all of his potential suitors. So how does this affect the Warriors, Knicks, and Nets (his three biggest suitors)?
It affects all of them to varying degrees.
The Warriors are far and away the most fascinating team impacted by Durant’s Achilles tear…because it happened when he played for them. As I said at the top, there are probably emotions associated with the training staff, coaching staff, and management because of how the injury was handled and what ultimately happened to Durant in the end.
Secondly, he has been playing for his team since 2016 and he has won two titles with them.
The emotion and bonds he created with his teammates along the way are things we can’t forget to account for. He came to Golden State to win and reach a higher level of basketball. Maybe he wants to stay at this level because it makes him happy and he trusts the staff to rehab him properly.
After all, he just witnessed them rehab DeMarcus Cousins, and besides an early playoff injury, looked pretty good during the regular season and played well during 2 of these 5 NBA Finals games. Cousins isn’t back in perfect basketball shape yet and he still has some rust on him, but his ability to actually stay healthy during the Finals is a testament to the ability of the Golden State training staff.
If Durant determines that Cousins’ was happy with his rehab and it was successful, then that could be enough to sway Kevin Durant to stay rather than bouncing to another team and learning about that staff.
The Knicks have a big question to ask themselves this offseason. With Durant taking this next year off to rehab and our history of losing this century, can we take this risk on him and hope that it works out?
In the 21st century, the Knicks have notably struck out twice on trading for or signing injured stars (or potential stars). In 2002, The Knicks traded for Antonio McDyess in exchange for Marcus Camby, Nene, and Mark Jackson. McDyess missed an entire year to rehab his knee and played 18 total games for the Knicks before being traded to Phoenix in 2004.
That trade ended up being for Stephon Marbury who had a nice run with the Knicks, but his career there never amounted to any postseason success. He played an average of 57 games per year with them and only averaged over 20 points once.
In 2010, after striking out on LeBron James and Dwyane Wade in free agency, the Knicks signed Amar’e Stoudemire who had a history of knee injuries – although he did play all 82 games in 2009-10 with the Suns. He played in 78 games and averaged 25 points per game in his first season with the Knicks. After that year, he never played more than 65 games for them in a single season. His injuries piled up and he flamed out before being traded to Dallas in the 2014-15 season.
The Knicks have to know that they haven’t had luck with free agents either due to injury or that player being deterred by the franchise itself. That’s why the rumors of Durant coming to New York were so uplifting for Knicks fans. There was finally a player who wanted to come to New York (at least according to the rumors) and be the savior of this historic franchise.
Now the Knicks may be forced to sign an injured player who won’t step on the court again until he’s 32. Do the Knicks think they can afford that risk? Especially when they’ll be investing at least $38 million per year in him?
If you’re the Nets, you have to start thinking about the viability of signing Kevin Durant to a long-term deal at this massive amount of money as well. If you sign him, you have to understand that he won’t play for a year which means that you are paying for a red-shirt player in essence for three of the four year deal. So while that red-shirt player is an All-Time Great, if you’re the Nets can you afford to sacrifice a season in order to hopefully have three great ones after that?
The Nets, after they finalize the Taurean Prince trade will have room for basically two max free-agent player slots. Presumably that money will go to Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant and D’Angelo Russell’s restricted free agency (however if the Nets get Kyrie, they'll end up kissing Russell goodbye).
Brooklyn has to think about the sunk cost of investing all of that money into a player who can’t play for a year though, because if they strike out on another superstar and only get Durant then you’re essentially running it back next year with almost the exact same roster as this year. The Net’s roster was good this year, but not nearly good enough to compete with the best Eastern Conference teams in a seven-game series.
So for the Nets, their primary concern has to be: will Durant’s recovery timetable line up with their goals to compete in the playoffs and for a title. Are the Nets satisfied with waiting until at least 2021 to dramatically improve their team?
Everyone else in the league is also affected by this injury. All of the sudden, for maybe the next two years, Kevin Durant isn't a foe you have to go through in the playoffs on your way to a title. As Toronto as seen during the NBA Finals, Golden State is easier to beat without Kevin Durant playing. The same goes for any team that signs Durant in the offseason.
Lastly, how does this injury affect the future of the NBA as a whole. I personally think this is the most important factor to consider in Kevin Durant's injury because it is the most difficult to assess long-term.
Kevin Durant’s injury, while sudden, wasn’t his first. He’s been fairly durable during his career but notably in 2014-15 he missed almost the entire year because of a foot injury. He bounced back really well from that so I wouldn’t count out his ability to return from this as well, but he is really trying to overcome higher odds.
He is already a Hall of Famer, but this injury has the potential to derail him from becoming one of the five best players ever.
Additionally, what sucks most about this injury, as a selfish NBA fan, is that we will now miss almost two years of Durant’s career when he should be in a time of his life where he’s breaking records and climbing up the all-time scoring list. He still may be on pace to break Kareem’s record, but this setback definitely makes that task way harder. I was looking forward to watching him make history every single season just like LeBron James has the past three or four years now.
I know Durant can come back and be a great player again, I just don’t know if he can reach his level of being an all-time great again with an injury like this. He does have the benefit of being a younger and different player than those who injured their Achilles before him.
Kobe Bryant was 36 when he tore his Achilles. Cousins is way bigger than Durant and couldn’t move that well to begin with. Antoine Walker was kind of fat and Dominique Wilkins relied on sheer athleticism to dominate. Durant has much more of a finesse game which benefits ability to have a successful career post-injury
I am rooting for Kevin Durant to come back completely healthy and play like nothing happened, and yet I can't help but remain dubious because of what I have previously seen from players who suffered this injury.
Kevin Durant’s injury has ripple effects that will shape the future of the NBA for years to come. It is one of the biggest stories in this era of the NBA. Just like how Durant’s decision to sign with Golden State in 2016 shaped the next five years of the NBA, this injury will shape the five years to follow.
*Durant image found from CBSSports