The Toronto Raptors Advance To Their First NBA Finals As The Bucks Lose Four Straight Games

Maybe – just maybe – more teams should have tried a little bit harder to trade for Kawhi “Healthy As Hell” Leonard last summer. Just maybe. Shoutout to Masai Ujiri for pulling the trigger not only in the Kawhi deal but also replacing Dwane Casey with Nick Nurse. In hindsight it all seems so simple, but most GMs wouldn’t have the cojones to trade their franchise’s all time leading scorer AND fire the reigning Coach of the Year. Let alone do both in the same offseason. Between crushing the draft routinely and his ability to make tough decisions repeatedly without worrying about how the fans might feel, Masai has already won this year.

As for Kawhi, maybe the Spurs should have just let the man rehab how he wanted to rather than rush him back on the court. Perhaps that would have been best in the long run, who can know for sure at this juncture. 27/17/7 with 2 steals and 2 blocks in a closeout game. If this were the NCAA Tournament he’d already have Tournament MOP already locked up. One of the rare players who gets better in the playoffs consistently throughout his career. In this moment he’s completely vindicated for demanding that trade and proving he wasn’t part of the Spurs system, that he can do it on his own and he knows his body better than anyone else.

The Bucks though… yikes man. Blown 15 point second half lead. Lost four straight games after a season of only losing consecutive games one time. They come up two games short of winning the East and now face a summer loaded with question marks. Will Middleton re-sign. What will happen with Brogdon. Do they already regret that Bledsoe extension. Can they expect a repeat year out of Brook Lopez like that. Where does Mirotic fit into this plan. They have Giannis entering his age 25 season, which is a fine place to start. But…how long is that window really open?

Milwaukee had a historically dominant regular season. They started off the playoffs 10-1 before all hell broke loose. Maybe this is just a large bump in the road that will be reflected upon as a growing pain. But maybe this was their best shot. And Kawhi snatched it from them like the cold blooded emotionless murder-laden robot that he is.

Now I’m not picking the Raptors to win the title, but boy oh boy is this the reason you push your chips all in when the moment presents itself. A hobbled Kevin Durant sure does allow Kawhi to roam defensively a bit. And perhaps that’s all the Raptors need to make this more interesting than folks outside of Toronto anticipate.

PS – The Truth has some sort of powers that he’s using in quite mysterious ways.