Now that Kawhi Leonard has brought Canada its first-ever NBA title, he might be tempted to build a dynasty of his own
THERE’S A SAYING in baseball to justify trades in which a team mortgages its future in order to make one improbable run at a championship: ”flags fly forever.” After winning the first National Basketball Association title in their 24-year-long history, the Toronto Raptors may need to coin a similar phrase for their sport.
Instead, the gamble worked out better than Toronto could possibly have expected. After resting Mr Leonard regularly during the NBA’s gruelling 82-game regular season to maintain his energy and reduce his risk of injury, the Raptors turned him loose in the playoffs. Mr Leonard rose to the occasion, delivering a performance that brought to mind the highlights of Mr James or Michael Jordan.
Golden State partisans will insist that Toronto’s title comes with an asterisk, as the team lost far more in this year’s Finals than just the chance to three-peat. The team’s dynasty is built around four stars: Stephen Curry, the best shooter in NBA history; Kevin Durant, one of the league’s top overall individual scorers; Draymond Green, arguably the NBA’s best defensive forward and passing big man; and Klay Thompson, another elite long-range shooter.
No one knows how Toronto would have fared against the Warriors at full strength. Over the course of the series, the Raptors outscored Golden State by six points per 100 possessions. Mr Durant probably improves his clubs by seven or eight points per 100 possessions relative to a typical end-of-bench player at the same position. So assuming that Mr Durant would have played around four-fifths of each game if healthy, the series might have been extremely close.
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