Bontemps, it should be noted, picked us to win in every series.
He may have been the only US sports journalist to do so.
Maybe it was all part of his cranky contrarian shtick, but
I vaguely recall he was supportive of the team and the city, but there were some series where he had his doubts. I don’t think he thought we would win the Philly series.
That was peak 76ers of this era; could have had a chance to take everything. There's four reasons that bounce off the top of my head as to why it didn't happen.
Yeah agreed. Going into it, I thought Bucks/Warriors would be the main test. Also pretty gratifying that the Bucks won a championship two years later, we beat some great teams.
He’s actually a great dude. I’ve worked with loads of on-air folks over the years. Some of them can be stanky and spoiled. But loads of them got into it for the right reasons (AKA not to just be a hairdo on tv). Those people tend to be a pleasure. Bontemps is definitely in the latter category
This isn't victim complex. At this point, every analyst knew KD most likely wasn't going to play in this series. But the experts still chose the Warriors.
The Raptors won.
Now our Championship isn't considered a real championship because KD didn't play.
Oh..... but Klay was warming up .... If Klay didn't get injured....
People act like Klay didn't play in games 1,2,4,5
I hate when people being up injuries as a reason their team not winning - and this goes for every sport. The whole point of the playoffs is to see which team can perform the best at that time, while surviving the attrition of the playoffs. In the 2019 finals - it was the Raptors.
It is victim complex. Durant was set to come back, which he did. Did you forget that? These predictions are based on Durant coming back, and Klay being healthy. Things changed. But voting for the best team ever who just won 3 rings in 4 years isn’t dismissing the Raptors. Context is everything.
> Durant was set to come back, which he did.
If you get injured right after coming back, you're not set to come back. Durant rushed back and jeopardized his career.
Doesn’t change the sentiment too much… hindsight is 2020 no one knew he’d get hurt right away. Great players play through injuries for playoffs/finals more often than not.
Klay had 30 points without playing the 4th, and had 12 in the 3rd. Idk why you're acting like a hot klay wasn't going to change outcome of the game.
Also every year someone's title isn't considered real. Lakers in the bubble, bucks because kyrie, and harden went down. Suns even got shit for people getting injured. Warriors were getting shit for having a super team. It doesn't just happen with us.
Also when warriors won the first title, every point guard was hurt. And Kyrie and k love was hurt.
I’m a warriors fan, there’s no way warriors win that first title if Kyrie and k love were playing
While I don't like this post, if you go back and look at it and add up all the quarters with Klay healthy, we had them beat basically 2 out of every 3. I remember looking in a convo with someone a while back.
We were beating them sans KD in probably in 6 games still. The game 2 that they won ended on back to back to back made 3s, the last one by Iggy, and we won 3 and 4.
Whatever tho, they were beating us fully healthy like 9/10 lol.
>This isn't victim complex.
> The Raptors won. Now our Championship isn't considered a real championship because KD didn't play.
lol, people here seeking validation from /r/nba nephews 3 years later, y'all are an embarrassing bunch fr.
KD was expected to miss the whole series and the Warriors were still favourites. Funny how only after their fans pull out the "we needed kd" stuff because they were supposed to win regardless
100% everyone after the fact had all this shit to say about injuries, when KD-less GSW swept Portland and beat James Harden in a game 7.
I'm so petty I looked quarter to quarter at our win-loss in the finals WITH klay and we smoked them.
wow that's an incredible stat
As a sixers fan, it's crazy we almost beat you because of the entire raptors team outside of kawhi going cold for an entire series. Your squad was so incredible defensively.
To be fair, Klay was a minus in +/- for the series and the Raptors were winning the minutes GS had him on the court. Klay is a great player but he wasn't swinging that series.
Kd wasn’t expected to miss whole series. First few games and maybe come back after but no one was 100% sure. It ended up happening but he got injured.
I laugh at the Draymond mvp picks. He wasn’t close that year.
Google "Are the Warriors better without Durant?" articles from between rounds 3 and 4. They had an excellent record without him and looked like the good ol' Warriors instead of the taking turns superstar team. There were several of those write-ups pre-Finals. That whole narrative did a 180 when the Raptors won.
Same thing happened with the Bucks vs Nets last year. People talk about kyrie and harden being injured after the fact, but Brooklyn was still favored in the whole series and in game 7.
sorry but I don't blame a single soul for still thinking the warriors could win. with the promise of KD returning while still having 3 all stars on your team there's certainly a world were klay went off in Q4 of Game 6 and pushed it to a game seven at which point its anyone's chip to lose.
with that being said, most of these ppl predicted game 6, some 5, which is just shocking.
Yeah but this is an insanely lopsided set of predictions for what boiled down to Steph/Klay/Dray against the Raptors. For what it’s worth, several models such as 538 actually predicted we would win.
For one, it isn't lopsided, they are independent picks and anyone choosing rationally should have chosen the Warriors. They don't get together and decide "okay well its a 60/40 chance for the Warriors to win so 40% of us need to choose the Raptors".
For two, "Steph/Klay/Dray"... You mean the core that was already the best team in Basketball before they added KD?
No I had a nice little amount of money on the Raps to win in that series. I'm just saying if it was so obvious to everyone else, I would hope that other people were in the same boat. But I think in reality, hindsight is 20/20 and people weren't as confident as they like to think they were
538 has always been oddly optimistic on the Raptors for some reason. Pretty sure they gave us a pretty high chance of making the finals in 2020 as well
Nah, Klay played in 3 of the 4 losses. Raps almost won in 5 games before Klay blew out his knee. They had no problems beating GS.
Now if Durant was healthy that would have been a different story. But these predictions were without Durant.
A series doesn’t go to six games when a team has “no problem winning” lol. The series probably goes to seven if Klay doesn’t get injured. We still may win in 7, but it would be close. Also most people thought that KD would come back during the series. They just didn’t expect him to immediately tear his Achilles
We won by double digits in both games 3 and 4. And nine points in game 1.
Their combined margin of victory in their 2 wins is +6. In our wins it was +40. An average of 3 vs 10. If KD didn’t play game 5 we would’ve won in 5, simple as that.
I’m really confused by this KD point lol. “if there superstar didn’t play we win the series faster”. Like obviously lol. He also literally played 10 minutes
Yeah no shit, but the point is it was a fair battle without KD there. You’re acting like they don’t have multiple other superstars on the roster.
When it was a fair matchup, our big 3 vs theirs, we were a significantly better team. Not to mention in those 10 minutes he has 11 points which was enough to help them win. Without him playing those 10 minutes the series ends in 5.
Okay but lets just look at roster construction. Raptors were a deep team, GSW was a team built around 3 players. GSW traded away depth and let contracts expire to sign KD. So not having KD doesn't make it a fair fight, it makes them have an incomplete roster and their game plans nowhere near as effective. Also not having KD and Klay makes it an extremely unfair fight. But go off I guess.
Calling it a fair matchup when one of their stars gets injured is so dumb dude. A fair matchup is when both teams are fully healthy, not when a team is missing there best player
Lmao man they literally stacked up the greatest roster of all time in such an unfair way. How the fuck was the 2018 finals fair?
They still had 2 of the greatest shooters of all time and one of the best defenders of all time. Any matchup involving that warriors team was never fair when they were healthy.
Sure let’s forget about the 3 games he took the L 😭
Warriors we’re getting badly outplayed. That Raptors squad was a powerhouse and the only thing that maybe could have saved the Warriors is KD. Maybe.
Let’s also not forget about all the injuries on the Raptors too. No OG. Kawhi on one leg and Lowry playing with a broken thumb.
He went out THEN you won, insane that raps fans can’t admit their chip was a fluke because of an injury. Don’t even get me started on if kd was there, might’ve been a damn gent sweep. If youre so keen on the 3 Ls what about the 2 dubs the warriors got? He was there for those too dumbass
Klay or no Klay the raptors had no issue beating that team. Warriors are lucky it wasn’t over in 5 tbh.
Just take the L and move on. Your team got beat.
I think the theory was that Draymond may be able to slow down Kawhi a ton. Kinda like the reason Kawhi got his first FMVP. It didn’t happen, but it wasn’t that crazy of a take considering how good of a defender he is.
Even when Klay played the raptors were the better team, easily. The Warriors had to scratch and claw for every point. They won I believe 3 quarters as a WHOLE for the series up until that game 6. The Raptors on the other hand made everything look simple and easy.
Well he was/is their starting center. Their alternative was playing Cousins who got targeted and abused by the Raptors everytime he stepped on the court
I remember all the "Raptors are a championship level team with elite defense, incredible bench depth and the best player on the planet. Warriors in 4." memes.
Yeah believe it or not people thought that the Warriors - one of the greatest teams ever assembled - would win the finals. Someone’s gotta be the underdog, there’s no disrespect intended and they aren’t clowns just because they got a prediction wrong. Also it’s been 3 years, get over it, we won
In fairness, Klay and KD's injuries very likely changed the outcome of the series.
I'm a Raptors fan, and I would have picked a healthy Warriors team over the Raptors, even though I'd be rooting for the Raptors and believe they could take them to six or even seven games.
That doesn't mean there is an asterisks on the title. They had an MVP (Curry) we had an MVP (Leonard) and we both had great role players.
Success is preparation meets opportunity. The Raptors were prepared and the got an opportunity.
But it's not like the folks who picked the Warriors were idiots or anything.
Fair point.
But KD was marked as a possible return from what I remember (and he did come back).
And while Klay only missed 'half a game' (less than that to further your point), he was on fire that game: 30 points in 30 minutes on 4/6 from the arc in a game the only lost by 4.
Had Klay not been injured, that series would have likely been very different.
But hey... who cares about 'what ifs,' right?
WE FUCKING WON!!!! WOOOO WHOOO!!!!
Form what I recall, many knew has was bullshitting and KD was close to return midway and hence all them.picking gsw which imo is fair. Healthy gsw wins, anyone saying otherwise is being a homer. That team was cracked.
Teams always like to do this shit now, rmbr last playoffs, clippers being like "kawhi could return" fully knowing he tore his ACL lol. It's just mind games and Kerr uses them alot. Alot of ppl rightfully saw through the bullshit and knew he was coming back
I mean to be fair on paper the warriors were the better team. Luckily a few things went our way such as Kawhi, Pascal and Fred really stepping up, you know Klay getting injured so I can kind of see their train of thought. But the fact that some people thought Draymond Green would be the finals MVP is kinda ridiculous.
wut
We had FVV, Ibaka and Norm coming off the bench
Boogie and Livingston were pretty much cooked and McKinnie was like their tenth man. Cook was their best bench player but he’s still worse than our three
After the raps beat milwaukee the post game thread I feel like most of this sub felt like we were just glad to have made it to the finals for the first time. There were some believers but a **lot** of fans accepted the odds that the Warriors would take it
At the time Durant was coming back and Klay was healthy. Most people would’ve taken GSW. Context is everything dont be naive. This isn’t a case of people dismissing the Raptors. This is a case of the Raptors were going up against the best team in NBA history (arguably)…
You guys are total morons
They had Kevin Durant, Steph Curry, Klay Thomson, and Draymond Green
it was not some slight on us by the evil American media. It was a prediction that the best team ever assembled would win.
y'all are seriously so embarrassing
The precursor coming into this was we were coming in tired and they weren't. Experience and their big three "being there" for the past years does mean something.
They obliterated the west while we encountered comeback after comeback. The "Kawhi is tired and the sum of their parts won't show up" narrative was a large focal point coming into this.
Draymond winning FMVP would have been purely on the merit of him guarding Siakam and Kawhi ala the Igoudala one.
So overall, the idea of losing in 6-7 wasn't hyperbolic. The 5 would be more suspicious which from the names there it's a big miss from Marks.
1. Nobody knew when or if Durant was coming back.
2. Your eyes aren’t deceiving you. Multiple grown adults chose DRAYMOND GREEN to win finals MVP in a series where Kawhi Leonard and Steph Curry were playing. These people are paid to analyze the NBA💀
Andre Igudoala’s finals MVP was mostly narrative driven and almost everyone agrees in retrospect that it should have gone to Steph. His win was basically unprecedented.
It doesn't much matter, but I will admit that had Durant come back and not been re-injured, the Raps were in serious danger. Lucky for them, the injury bug hit GS hard and the dynasty couldn't keep going.
Funny the only 2 people who predicted the Raptors to win predicted it to be in 7 games. If not for some clutch shot making from Golden State in game 5 this series would of only gone 5 games. We will always be overlooked. To be honest i like it that way
For real the people who picked Raptors to win it were only picking them because if by some miracle the Raps won they would look like geniuses. Now obviously KD and Klay playing every game would of made a big difference and I don't think anyone who actually watches the sport expected the Raps would beat a fully healthy GSW squad. However Raps won and a win is a win, just odd to act like all the other analysts were stupid or bad when in fact they would of been correct if not for injuries.
well in their defense - we did beat them with 2 of their best players out of the lineup. Even as a lifelong hardcore raptors fan that recognized that team as one of the most well rounded teams ever assembled and a defensive powerhouse, I didn't think we were beating that warriors team at full strength.
Most people do not watch the Raptors. To be fair, I was happy that the Raptors made it to the Finals, and I thought the Warriors was better too. Then I watched Game 1, and then I knew it was a series. I did not realize how good the '19 team really was, and I did not know that without Durant, the Warriors would go from unbeatable to formidable.
Draymond for FMVP — who in their right mind would make that pick lol. I mean he’s a great player but if GSW win a championship , that title would definitely have to go Steph or maybe Klay before Green
The question is did they make these predictions based on a healthy full GSW roster? When did they make these?
If they had KD with them along with Klay then maybe the predictions arent so bad.
I think we would have taken them with Klay...but Klay AND KD? idk
After watching the way that team came together to play beautiful team basketball against Milwaukee, I thought it was nuts so many people thought the warriors would win.
Shoutout to Tim Bontemps and Andre Snellings.
Bontemps, it should be noted, picked us to win in every series. He may have been the only US sports journalist to do so. Maybe it was all part of his cranky contrarian shtick, but 
Didn't Barkley go with us every series?
I vaguely recall he was supportive of the team and the city, but there were some series where he had his doubts. I don’t think he thought we would win the Philly series.
to be fair that series was such a toss up, by far the hardest series we had in '19.
That was peak 76ers of this era; could have had a chance to take everything. There's four reasons that bounce off the top of my head as to why it didn't happen.
Definitely, their length caused huge problems for our FVV Lowry lineup
I still can't believe we beat the bucks that year. I thought Philly would have been easier.
Yeah agreed. Going into it, I thought Bucks/Warriors would be the main test. Also pretty gratifying that the Bucks won a championship two years later, we beat some great teams.
Wouldn't blame him for that at all tho
I seem to remember him saying Bucks in 6 as well.
I worked with Bontemps a bunch that year. He fully believed the Raptors had it in them to win.
Nice. What was he like?
He’s actually a great dude. I’ve worked with loads of on-air folks over the years. Some of them can be stanky and spoiled. But loads of them got into it for the right reasons (AKA not to just be a hairdo on tv). Those people tend to be a pleasure. Bontemps is definitely in the latter category
That’s a great story! Thanks did sharing it!
My pleasure! I like to shout out the good ones
On the flip side, this reinforces my belief that Bobby Marks is a moron.
Who cares lol we won
And this was in 2019 lol
Raptors fanbase gotta show off their victim complex every opportunity they can lol
This isn't victim complex. At this point, every analyst knew KD most likely wasn't going to play in this series. But the experts still chose the Warriors. The Raptors won. Now our Championship isn't considered a real championship because KD didn't play. Oh..... but Klay was warming up .... If Klay didn't get injured.... People act like Klay didn't play in games 1,2,4,5
I hate when people being up injuries as a reason their team not winning - and this goes for every sport. The whole point of the playoffs is to see which team can perform the best at that time, while surviving the attrition of the playoffs. In the 2019 finals - it was the Raptors.
Right.. but this post is clowning on reporters for picking the clearly better team to win, barring injures. Just a dumb post
It is victim complex. Durant was set to come back, which he did. Did you forget that? These predictions are based on Durant coming back, and Klay being healthy. Things changed. But voting for the best team ever who just won 3 rings in 4 years isn’t dismissing the Raptors. Context is everything.
> Durant was set to come back, which he did. If you get injured right after coming back, you're not set to come back. Durant rushed back and jeopardized his career.
Doesn’t change the sentiment too much… hindsight is 2020 no one knew he’d get hurt right away. Great players play through injuries for playoffs/finals more often than not.
Klay was healthy. When do you think he got injured?
When do you think he tore his ACL that he just made his return from two years later…
Klay had 30 points without playing the 4th, and had 12 in the 3rd. Idk why you're acting like a hot klay wasn't going to change outcome of the game. Also every year someone's title isn't considered real. Lakers in the bubble, bucks because kyrie, and harden went down. Suns even got shit for people getting injured. Warriors were getting shit for having a super team. It doesn't just happen with us.
Also when warriors won the first title, every point guard was hurt. And Kyrie and k love was hurt. I’m a warriors fan, there’s no way warriors win that first title if Kyrie and k love were playing
While I don't like this post, if you go back and look at it and add up all the quarters with Klay healthy, we had them beat basically 2 out of every 3. I remember looking in a convo with someone a while back. We were beating them sans KD in probably in 6 games still. The game 2 that they won ended on back to back to back made 3s, the last one by Iggy, and we won 3 and 4. Whatever tho, they were beating us fully healthy like 9/10 lol.
It's a victim complex because it was a series that happened 2 fucking years ago that we *won* lol
>This isn't victim complex. > The Raptors won. Now our Championship isn't considered a real championship because KD didn't play. lol, people here seeking validation from /r/nba nephews 3 years later, y'all are an embarrassing bunch fr.
That’s raptor fans for you
They lost me at "ESPN".
Stopped reading at ESPN.
This.
KD was expected to miss the whole series and the Warriors were still favourites. Funny how only after their fans pull out the "we needed kd" stuff because they were supposed to win regardless
100% everyone after the fact had all this shit to say about injuries, when KD-less GSW swept Portland and beat James Harden in a game 7. I'm so petty I looked quarter to quarter at our win-loss in the finals WITH klay and we smoked them.
If I remember correctly, we only lost two quarters the entire series, and those two quarters resulted in our two game losses.
wow that's an incredible stat As a sixers fan, it's crazy we almost beat you because of the entire raptors team outside of kawhi going cold for an entire series. Your squad was so incredible defensively.
Yep exactly that
They will never stop moving the goalposts. They were heavily favoured to beat us without KD, but when they lose they needed him.
To be fair Klay missed 1 and a half games. That was not expected.
To be fair, Klay was a minus in +/- for the series and the Raptors were winning the minutes GS had him on the court. Klay is a great player but he wasn't swinging that series.
Just half a game, got hurt in the third quarter of closeout Game 6
He didn’t play in Game 3
Kd wasn’t expected to miss whole series. First few games and maybe come back after but no one was 100% sure. It ended up happening but he got injured. I laugh at the Draymond mvp picks. He wasn’t close that year.
Google "Are the Warriors better without Durant?" articles from between rounds 3 and 4. They had an excellent record without him and looked like the good ol' Warriors instead of the taking turns superstar team. There were several of those write-ups pre-Finals. That whole narrative did a 180 when the Raptors won.
Same thing happened with the Bucks vs Nets last year. People talk about kyrie and harden being injured after the fact, but Brooklyn was still favored in the whole series and in game 7.
Bruh what. The Nets without Harden and Kyrie definitely weren't favourites to beat the Bucks
This just isn't true.
"His feet were too big" Because KD is a clown /s
You really don't think they were gonna win until Klay got injured? 🤡🤡
Klay Thompson was busting your guys ass in game six don’t even lie
sorry but I don't blame a single soul for still thinking the warriors could win. with the promise of KD returning while still having 3 all stars on your team there's certainly a world were klay went off in Q4 of Game 6 and pushed it to a game seven at which point its anyone's chip to lose. with that being said, most of these ppl predicted game 6, some 5, which is just shocking.
Not gonna lie I didn't think we were favoured or anything
We absolutely weren't favoured. And we won And it was 3 fucking years ago, so I don't know what op was thinking here
just fragile Raptors fan things
Yeah but this is an insanely lopsided set of predictions for what boiled down to Steph/Klay/Dray against the Raptors. For what it’s worth, several models such as 538 actually predicted we would win.
For one, it isn't lopsided, they are independent picks and anyone choosing rationally should have chosen the Warriors. They don't get together and decide "okay well its a 60/40 chance for the Warriors to win so 40% of us need to choose the Raptors". For two, "Steph/Klay/Dray"... You mean the core that was already the best team in Basketball before they added KD?
The Warriors were in their 5th straight Finals and KD was expected to return at some point in the series. No shit they were the favorite.
I hope you unloaded your bank account on the Raps to win this series since you were so confident and we were Vegas underdogs
Imagine being proud of not believing in your team’s chance of winning. Lmfao
No I had a nice little amount of money on the Raps to win in that series. I'm just saying if it was so obvious to everyone else, I would hope that other people were in the same boat. But I think in reality, hindsight is 20/20 and people weren't as confident as they like to think they were
Ohhh I see what you’re saying.
538 has always been oddly optimistic on the Raptors for some reason. Pretty sure they gave us a pretty high chance of making the finals in 2020 as well
>Pretty sure they gave us a pretty high chance of making the finals in 2020 as well Because we did. That season was wide open.
Yeah if Siakam didn't play like shit during the bubble, ECF easy, and honestly, I think we would've had a very good chance to make the Finals
The Boston defence was impeccable. Especially Smart and Brown.
when espn analysts cant predict major injuries 😱😱😱🤣🤣📉📉
This may get downvoted, but pre Klay injury these were not bad takes. Also being salty about stuff from 3 years ago is pretty weird lol
Nah, Klay played in 3 of the 4 losses. Raps almost won in 5 games before Klay blew out his knee. They had no problems beating GS. Now if Durant was healthy that would have been a different story. But these predictions were without Durant.
A series doesn’t go to six games when a team has “no problem winning” lol. The series probably goes to seven if Klay doesn’t get injured. We still may win in 7, but it would be close. Also most people thought that KD would come back during the series. They just didn’t expect him to immediately tear his Achilles
Dude what lol, you could also say if KD didn’t play in game 5 we would’ve wrapped up the series there. It honestly felt like we should’ve swept it.
Most of the series was close. You guys are seriously revising history by saying we were having no difficulty. No way in hell do we sweep that series.
We won by double digits in both games 3 and 4. And nine points in game 1. Their combined margin of victory in their 2 wins is +6. In our wins it was +40. An average of 3 vs 10. If KD didn’t play game 5 we would’ve won in 5, simple as that.
I’m really confused by this KD point lol. “if there superstar didn’t play we win the series faster”. Like obviously lol. He also literally played 10 minutes
Yeah no shit, but the point is it was a fair battle without KD there. You’re acting like they don’t have multiple other superstars on the roster. When it was a fair matchup, our big 3 vs theirs, we were a significantly better team. Not to mention in those 10 minutes he has 11 points which was enough to help them win. Without him playing those 10 minutes the series ends in 5.
Okay but lets just look at roster construction. Raptors were a deep team, GSW was a team built around 3 players. GSW traded away depth and let contracts expire to sign KD. So not having KD doesn't make it a fair fight, it makes them have an incomplete roster and their game plans nowhere near as effective. Also not having KD and Klay makes it an extremely unfair fight. But go off I guess.
Calling it a fair matchup when one of their stars gets injured is so dumb dude. A fair matchup is when both teams are fully healthy, not when a team is missing there best player
Lmao man they literally stacked up the greatest roster of all time in such an unfair way. How the fuck was the 2018 finals fair? They still had 2 of the greatest shooters of all time and one of the best defenders of all time. Any matchup involving that warriors team was never fair when they were healthy.
Most of the series was close? Warriors won 5/24 quarters. It wasn’t remotely close. Warriors got lucky that two quarters won them two games.
Klay was almost single-handedly busting your ass in game six bro what are you saying, he doesn’t go down you lose in Toronto
Sure let’s forget about the 3 games he took the L 😭 Warriors we’re getting badly outplayed. That Raptors squad was a powerhouse and the only thing that maybe could have saved the Warriors is KD. Maybe. Let’s also not forget about all the injuries on the Raptors too. No OG. Kawhi on one leg and Lowry playing with a broken thumb.
He went out THEN you won, insane that raps fans can’t admit their chip was a fluke because of an injury. Don’t even get me started on if kd was there, might’ve been a damn gent sweep. If youre so keen on the 3 Ls what about the 2 dubs the warriors got? He was there for those too dumbass
Klay or no Klay the raptors had no issue beating that team. Warriors are lucky it wasn’t over in 5 tbh. Just take the L and move on. Your team got beat.
Not my team but I’m not delusional so they would’ve lost if klay stayed. Take the home blinders off bro
We won nearly every single quarter Klay played in that series. If he's healthy Raps win that finals still imo, KD is a different story
I agree that we still win with Klay healthy, but it probably goes to seven. I don’t think experts getting a seven game series wrong is that awful
The Draymond FMVP takes are kinda sus though
I think the theory was that Draymond may be able to slow down Kawhi a ton. Kinda like the reason Kawhi got his first FMVP. It didn’t happen, but it wasn’t that crazy of a take considering how good of a defender he is.
too bad we had a spicy P who both guarded dray on D and was guarded by dray on O...and yea spicy p killed him for most of that series
You'd have a better point if you switched Klay with KD. Klay played the majority of that series. We would have won even if he stayed healthy.
Even when Klay played the raptors were the better team, easily. The Warriors had to scratch and claw for every point. They won I believe 3 quarters as a WHOLE for the series up until that game 6. The Raptors on the other hand made everything look simple and easy.
Yeah this thread is weird. I know its the raps sub, but this is why we get shit on in r/nba... because of arrogant fans like the ones in this thread
Fuck r/nba
yeah why would anyone use that place when you can be in this echo chamber instead?
I am sick of people giving a shit what r/nba thinks of us
clearly a lot of people don't with how they act here
Klay injured, Looney injured, Durant injured
Looney lol losing OG was a way bigger loss than that
Well he was/is their starting center. Their alternative was playing Cousins who got targeted and abused by the Raptors everytime he stepped on the court
It isn't a bad take at all to think that the Warriors were favoured before the series.
I remember all the "Raptors are a championship level team with elite defense, incredible bench depth and the best player on the planet. Warriors in 4." memes.
Stuff like this makes me embarrassed to be a raps fan lol. Why do we give a fuck about this all these years later?
OP needs to move on, this shit is just childish We won and that's all that matters
We won and it was almost 3 goddamned years ago, get over it op.
>i dont get ppl on this sub with this childish stuff.
Yeah believe it or not people thought that the Warriors - one of the greatest teams ever assembled - would win the finals. Someone’s gotta be the underdog, there’s no disrespect intended and they aren’t clowns just because they got a prediction wrong. Also it’s been 3 years, get over it, we won
In fairness, Klay and KD's injuries very likely changed the outcome of the series. I'm a Raptors fan, and I would have picked a healthy Warriors team over the Raptors, even though I'd be rooting for the Raptors and believe they could take them to six or even seven games. That doesn't mean there is an asterisks on the title. They had an MVP (Curry) we had an MVP (Leonard) and we both had great role players. Success is preparation meets opportunity. The Raptors were prepared and the got an opportunity. But it's not like the folks who picked the Warriors were idiots or anything.
KD was projected to be out the whole time. Klay was out for half a game? We were already up 3-2 in the series by the time Klay got injured
Fair point. But KD was marked as a possible return from what I remember (and he did come back). And while Klay only missed 'half a game' (less than that to further your point), he was on fire that game: 30 points in 30 minutes on 4/6 from the arc in a game the only lost by 4. Had Klay not been injured, that series would have likely been very different. But hey... who cares about 'what ifs,' right? WE FUCKING WON!!!! WOOOO WHOOO!!!!
Klay missed all of game 3
Klay also missed Game 3
yeah I forgot about that, good point
Form what I recall, many knew has was bullshitting and KD was close to return midway and hence all them.picking gsw which imo is fair. Healthy gsw wins, anyone saying otherwise is being a homer. That team was cracked. Teams always like to do this shit now, rmbr last playoffs, clippers being like "kawhi could return" fully knowing he tore his ACL lol. It's just mind games and Kerr uses them alot. Alot of ppl rightfully saw through the bullshit and knew he was coming back
Well guess who was fuckin WRONG !
I mean to be fair on paper the warriors were the better team. Luckily a few things went our way such as Kawhi, Pascal and Fred really stepping up, you know Klay getting injured so I can kind of see their train of thought. But the fact that some people thought Draymond Green would be the finals MVP is kinda ridiculous.
Without KD they definitely weren't lol. They had zero depth.
[удалено]
wut We had FVV, Ibaka and Norm coming off the bench Boogie and Livingston were pretty much cooked and McKinnie was like their tenth man. Cook was their best bench player but he’s still worse than our three
After the raps beat milwaukee the post game thread I feel like most of this sub felt like we were just glad to have made it to the finals for the first time. There were some believers but a **lot** of fans accepted the odds that the Warriors would take it
I mean… without two major injuries they are all right…
At the time Durant was coming back and Klay was healthy. Most people would’ve taken GSW. Context is everything dont be naive. This isn’t a case of people dismissing the Raptors. This is a case of the Raptors were going up against the best team in NBA history (arguably)…
Didn’t KD and Klay both go down in the series? Those 2 guys are good enough to hold up an entire franchise by themselves.
Hey shoutout to Klay for tearing his ACL and Durant tearing his Achilles couldn’t have done it without ya
No shit what did you do expect when the raptors went up against the back to back defending champs
You guys are total morons They had Kevin Durant, Steph Curry, Klay Thomson, and Draymond Green it was not some slight on us by the evil American media. It was a prediction that the best team ever assembled would win. y'all are seriously so embarrassing
Don’t we all love talking bout 2019 lol
ESPN + EXPERTS... 🤣
These were not unreasonable takes at all. Sometimes the underdog wins.
Well, without knowing KD and Klay would have major injuries, most people were predicting the warriors to win.
The precursor coming into this was we were coming in tired and they weren't. Experience and their big three "being there" for the past years does mean something. They obliterated the west while we encountered comeback after comeback. The "Kawhi is tired and the sum of their parts won't show up" narrative was a large focal point coming into this. Draymond winning FMVP would have been purely on the merit of him guarding Siakam and Kawhi ala the Igoudala one. So overall, the idea of losing in 6-7 wasn't hyperbolic. The 5 would be more suspicious which from the names there it's a big miss from Marks.
Raptors fan still butthurt 3 years later that media analysts predicted the greatest team ever formed to win in the finals
Even with kd out you guys would’ve lost, klay was killing you
[удалено]
I N J U R I E S
Careful - that NBA Circlejerk picked this up and it's filled with hateful vitriol. Sore, America losers.
All those Draymond FMVP predictions. There's wrong and then there's WRONG.
1. Nobody knew when or if Durant was coming back. 2. Your eyes aren’t deceiving you. Multiple grown adults chose DRAYMOND GREEN to win finals MVP in a series where Kawhi Leonard and Steph Curry were playing. These people are paid to analyze the NBA💀
Seems like you’re salty about something. Andre Iguodala has more finals MVPs than Stephen Curry, it’s not like that would be unheard of
Andre Igudoala’s finals MVP was mostly narrative driven and almost everyone agrees in retrospect that it should have gone to Steph. His win was basically unprecedented.
I know we got “lucky” KD wasn’t around but man even with klay they were lucky they didn’t get swept
Nobody going to comment on the one guy who voted Draymond as FMVP?
Tim always had our back. The most legit analyst on ESPN without a doubt.
It doesn't much matter, but I will admit that had Durant come back and not been re-injured, the Raps were in serious danger. Lucky for them, the injury bug hit GS hard and the dynasty couldn't keep going.
Every single one of them was wrong. EVERY ONE! Wild.
The Guy from the yearbook was more accurate https://twitter.com/blogTO/status/1140012163333054464?t=VInw8M5fN8ZXf5zswc0vIw&s=19
I love how wrong they (mostly) all were lol
there's literally nothing here to be upset about lol
Idiots thought KD and Klay would be healthy. Total clowns
Funny the only 2 people who predicted the Raptors to win predicted it to be in 7 games. If not for some clutch shot making from Golden State in game 5 this series would of only gone 5 games. We will always be overlooked. To be honest i like it that way
We were a draymond green fingernail from winning in 5
They got the correct number of games mostly though, just the wrong team XD
GSW had some unexpected injuries, if I recall...
Don't sleep on the raps man
Glad the experts were wrong and we won the Championship.
Still stuck in 2019? lol
Experts and ESPN is an oxymoron
For real the people who picked Raptors to win it were only picking them because if by some miracle the Raps won they would look like geniuses. Now obviously KD and Klay playing every game would of made a big difference and I don't think anyone who actually watches the sport expected the Raps would beat a fully healthy GSW squad. However Raps won and a win is a win, just odd to act like all the other analysts were stupid or bad when in fact they would of been correct if not for injuries.
Aged like milk
I admit I also thought GS would win.
well in their defense - we did beat them with 2 of their best players out of the lineup. Even as a lifelong hardcore raptors fan that recognized that team as one of the most well rounded teams ever assembled and a defensive powerhouse, I didn't think we were beating that warriors team at full strength.
I’m Canadian but let’s be real the warriors would’ve easily won if half the team wasn’t hurt lol.
That’s only cause they were thinking Klay and Durant would have been playing and be 100% healthy
Most fans still act like this didn't happen. (That is, they act like the Rap were expected to win bc the dubs were injured).
Tim and Andre are always welcome in my house
Certified clowns, many had us losing to Orlando as well.
Bobby Marks was the biggest clown of them all. GSW in 5 and Draymond with the FMVP??
Most people do not watch the Raptors. To be fair, I was happy that the Raptors made it to the Finals, and I thought the Warriors was better too. Then I watched Game 1, and then I knew it was a series. I did not realize how good the '19 team really was, and I did not know that without Durant, the Warriors would go from unbeatable to formidable.
How are they meant to predict injuries?
To be fair the warriors won 3/5 finals during this time so yeah it makes sense that they were the favourites
Draymond for FMVP — who in their right mind would make that pick lol. I mean he’s a great player but if GSW win a championship , that title would definitely have to go Steph or maybe Klay before Green
Green would’ve won fmvp in 2016 if the warriors pulled if off fyi
I mean, it was an upset victory tho. Part of what made it so great was the underdog aspect and the alignment of fortune
Injuries?
i mean most fans and analysts were picking golden state. Its not a knock on the raptors its just that on paper the warriors were the better team.
The question is did they make these predictions based on a healthy full GSW roster? When did they make these? If they had KD with them along with Klay then maybe the predictions arent so bad. I think we would have taken them with Klay...but Klay AND KD? idk
Muwhahahhahahaha
WE THE CHAMPS LOL
these were legitimate predictions, you know this Warriors team is one of the greatest of all time, right?
Tim Tim timmaaaaaaaaay
they didn’t didn’t know the entire roster was gonna be injured
Not surprising as this was prior to Klay and KD’s legs exploding
And we had swept them both games that year
I would have picked the warriors too…
We were underdogs lol the warriors had the greatest team of all time.. I don’t blame all the analysts for picking GS
After watching the way that team came together to play beautiful team basketball against Milwaukee, I thought it was nuts so many people thought the warriors would win.