Richard Jefferson Giving The Raptors A 0% Chance To Win The Title Is Utterly Ridiculous
This is a bit right? Like Richard Jefferson is on First Take so by rule he has to go on television and say something completely and utterly ridiculous? That's how these things work right? Because make no mistake, to say the defending champs, a team that has looked pretty damn good in the bubble so far has a "0% chance" to win the NBA title is the stupidest thing I've heard today. That's so wrong on so many levels I don't even know where to begin.
I've done it before, but let's run it from the top
- 3rd most wins in the entire NBA
- 12th best offense
- 2nd best defense
- 2nd best net rating
- 32-10 vs the East
- 17-8 vs the West
- 2 All Stars, 1 All NBA player
- Have arguably the best coach in the NBA
- 2-0 vs Lakers (who many think will be in the Finals)
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- Championship experience
- 3-0 in the bubble so far with the #1 defense and #2 net rating
- Have depth with 8 players averaging at least 7 points a night
the list goes on and on. You can think they may not win the whole thing, but to declare that they have a 0% chance is just dumb. Even if it'll be an uphill climb for them to get out of the East, it's not crazy. Especially since they beat MIL last year! Yeah I know, they don't have Kawhi this time around, but we've seen no drop off whatsoever from this group defensively to think they can't get it done again. Siakam can give you 75% of what Kawhi did defensively. Their bigs are still there and they know how to build that wall to make life hard for Giannis.
As it stands right now Vegas has the Raptors with the 4th best title odds at +900. Only LAL/MIL/LAC are ahead of them which makes sense. Does Richard Jefferson think any of those teams have zero chance? How about the Rockets/Celtics (shut up)/Sixers? My guess is no. I really don't know what else the Raptors have to do to finally get some respect around here. They won the whole damn thing last year, lost their best player, and backed that title up with an even better season this year! They just beat the shit out the Lakers in the bubble with both LeBron/AD playing before LeBron declared he had a "groin injury". How can you see that performance and still think they have no chance? I'm not even a Raptors fan and I'm offended.
The only thing I can think of is RJ is hating on TOR because of his time with LeBron in CLE. That's the only explanation that would make sense to me even if is still a god awful take.
So to any Raptors fans out there, I feel for you. I recognize how legit of a threat you are to repeat because I have eyes and have seen your body of work. Anyone who has actually watched this team play knows they have a much higher chance than 0%, and to say otherwise just exposes you as someone who has no fucking idea what you're talking about and you haven't watched them play.
You can sleep on the Raptors if you want, but I'm sure as shit not going to do it