The Ringer NBA Show - The Toronto Raptors Are the 2019 NBA Champions | Heat Check

Episode Date: June 14, 2019

In a thrilling Game 6 of the NBA Finals, the Toronto Raptors defeat the Golden State Warriors to win their first championship in franchise history. Host: John Gonzalez Guest: Kevin O’Connor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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pulled off to win the first ever title for Canada. Congrats to the Toronto Raptors. We're going to get into that in just a second. Taste the difference and enjoy Belvedere's new single estate rye vodka's on the rocks. We're in a delicious cocktail today. Belvedere is a quality choice. Drinking responsibly is too. And now heat check. Welcome to another and a final Special finals heat check. I'm your host John Gonzalez. Isaac Lee is back in LA. I am joined in San Francisco by the one and the only Kevin O'Connor.

This time, Kevin, we're in your hotel room, not mine. I'm going to put my feet up on the bed. The Toronto Raptors are your 2019 NBA champions. They win game six on the road. It was the third win for them on the road in the playoffs against the Golden State Warriors. The fourth time they've beaten the Warriors on the road this season. Just an incredible performance. Kauai Leonard is your MVP.

Canada, celebrate. Go crazy. Unbelievable night for the Toronto Raptors Gons. We talked about it between us after the game. Kaui Leonard, obviously, headed just an incredible postseason run from the jump in the first round against the magic, against the Sixers, the Bucks, and now against the Warriors.

But in this series, in particular, Toronto got the contributions that they needed from across the roster up and down. Tonight, Fred Van Blyte having an outstanding game, five of 11 from three. Siakum finally was able to hit some threes. Finally. After 04 the entire series.

He got a hot start. And Kyle Lari in that first half with 21, 6 and 6, finishing with 26 points, 10 assists, 7 rebounds, and just some. Also a hot start. Yeah, hot start. And stellar defense as well. They got the contributions they needed, not just from Kauai, but everybody on that roster.

What do you think at the end there? And we're going to get into Clay and we're going to get into the Warriors and all that stuff in a little bit. But it's the Raptors night, so we should do a lot of Raptors up top. An incredible performance for them. I thought that they were going to win this in five, the way that Game 5 was going.

And then in game 6, I started to get really nervous for all the same reasons that we saw in 5. You know, Steph got a good look at it. Yeah. Steph had a great look at the end of that game. Like, what more can you ask for? Steve Kerr said it after the game.

He thinks every Steph shot is going in. I sure as hell thought that was going in. Yeah, me too. Even when he's chucking up those 70 footers at the buzzer, you know, for a quarter. I'm like, man, some of these are going to go in. Me and Nick Friedel from ESPN were sitting next to each other. And both those heaves at the end of the clock at the end of the quarters, we both thought those are going in as well, or at least they had a chance.

And guess what? They did? They were close. They were accurate. Steph Curry tonight, it's really a shame that the Warriors had to deal with so many injuries because after Clay Thompson went down, Steph was just swarmed constantly. Yeah. Toronto didn't necessarily go full box and one.

But every single action, Curry ran around screens. they were there with two or sometimes three guys, every single pick and roll, trapping him getting the ball out of his hands. Steph just had no room. He was exhausted. He had no help. No shooters around him on the court. And Toronto just completely exploited it as they damn well should with the style of defense that

they played this entire series, especially tonight. Yeah, credit to the Raptors defense. I mean, they've been so good all postseason long. And I was really excited to see what they would do against the Golden State Warriors because obviously, you know, defending champs. They've been five straight finals appearances now. This represents in theory their biggest test, although, I mean, the Philadelphia is 76ers by the transit property might be the second best team in the NBA.

But really just an incredible defensive effort for them throughout the postseason. And then again, tonight when they absolutely had to have it holding Golden State to 110 points, which I know Verno had used as the line of demarcation. If you have the Warriors in that 110 range and below, you're good to go. If they're north of that 110 range, they're damn hard to beat tonight, exactly 110 points in the Toronto Raptors end up. winning the series. So shouts to Verno. Ferno. It's a great week for Verno, by the way.

Great week for Verne. The Blues winning the Stanley Cup, game seven on Wednesday night. And then tonight, Marcus Sol, former Memphis Grizzly winning an NBA finals. Congratulations to Chris Vernon and all the Grizzly's fans out there. Not a big night for Marcusall, by the way. We've seen intermittent nights of Marcosol where he was good in certain games and not good in other games. This was a not good Marcosol. It's not about tonight. It's about everything. Yeah, yeah.

He gets to celebrate. He gets a ring just like everybody else. But let's go with Kauai Lennon for right now. Almost nearly the finals, unanimous MVP. One vote against him. Who was that vote? I didn't see who it was. Hubey Brown.

It was Hughie Brown. He voted for Fred Van Bleet, which by the way, like Van Bleet should not be finals MVP. No. But if you were going to like somebody else. Yeah, Van Vleet had just an outstanding series. The defense he played on Stefan Curry, man to man. hounding him.

The second Curry crossed half court. I mean, earlier in the series, I talked to a player who mentioned like spots, you know,

finding spots to target a guy. And Curry was the second he crossed half court. They had a guy on him. It was typically Van Bleet. And then they had the second guy or the third guy come any time he was off screen actions.

Van Bleet deserved a heck of a lot of credit for the series. Yeah, 22 points in this game. He made five. He shot 11, three pointers and made five of them. And you know what?

That was a big, a big part of the night for the Raptors night. They cooled off after their hot start. They were super hot early on in the first half. They ended up shooting only, and I say only in air quotes, nearly 40% from three. It took 33 of them. But this was kind of a point for them all postseason and specifically in the series where when their threes are falling, all of a sudden it's a oh time for the other team because

they have been so good this postseason and you have had sort of like a taking turns, supporting cast with Kauai Leonard where one night at Siakam, one night. In the case of this evening, it's Kyle Lowry. You know, we've, we've seen a Danny Green game. We've seen a Marcus Saul game. But Fred Van Fleet, like, I did a, you know, humble brag here. I did a Toronto, Canada radio interview. And like, me and the two guys, shouts to the Canada radio station that had me on that,

I would throw out the numbers of the station, like whatever the call sign of the station is. I don't remember. So is a Sportsnet 590? I think it was 590. I love those guys. They have some good shows over there. Those guys are awesome. my brain is mush. Apologies for me not remembering that off the top of my head.

But we were laughing about it on the air about like two weeks ago or three weeks ago or two series ago or however long it was when Fred Van Fleet's shot wasn't falling before the baby came. He was like so close to unplayable that people were openly lobbying for Jeremy Lynn to play his minutes. And then he gets untracked against Milwaukee. And now all of a sudden it's like, oh man, you know who was like maybe the Raptor's second best player in the postseason? Fred Van Fleet. It's kind of funny with Van Fleet. He went back to the guy that people thought he was as a rookie because last season was,

so I'm sorry, his second season, the beginning of this season was just really not good for him through the postseason. It was sort of a step back for him overall until the baby was born. Yeah. And now look at him. Got a finals MVP vote. Imagine how much quicker you could write if you just had a baby tomorrow. Oh, I'm not sure.

You would just be potting and like firing up columns. It would be incredible. I don't know. So any eligible women out there get at KOSA. Not sure that's a life change I want right now. But really just like for him to like reemerge when I think like a lot of people would have had their confidence completely shook. You'd look at him and be like, oh man, I'm not playing well. I know I'm not playing well.

And on top of that like I can, it's not like these guys don't hear these things. He must have been aware of, you know, people coming after him for the way he played in those first two series. And then all of a sudden for him to like find this. redemption. He's an undrafted guy who just won an NBA championship with the Toronto Raptors, the first ever team to win a title outside of the United States. I mean, like, what a wild ride. Like, did you see the videos of what's happening in Canada right now? I just want to, I just, I have not. I want to, uh, I've been riding on the bus that we got here, time to pod. By the time you guys are listening, there, there might not be anything left of Toronto.

Toronto had a really good run. It's an amazing city. Uh, had to come to an in like this. It was a good time. I hope all my friends in Canada are okay. Sirot So He, the starters, I hope they're all safe. Yeah, shots to all those guys. I hope Toronto took a page from Philly's booking. Danny Chow is still in Toronto right now. Danny Chow is still, Danny might not make it out. It's going to be like the last chopper out of Saigon for Danny.

We're going to lose a great editor. We had a good run. Danny also had a good run, but you know what? If this is it for Danny, this is how he'd want to go out. You know, what a way to go out if it is, huh? It really is. But back to Kauai for a second. Like when they went and shots to Massifers,

Ujiri who like in game four after game four when they won that second game on the road at oracle which we thought was going to be the final game in Oracle I saw Musai like out on the court just sort of like watching the crowd saying oh Canada like just very hushed off to the side by himself taking it all in and what stones it had to take for him to do this with Kauai like to trade demar who was one of the most beloved players in raptors franchise history to fire the coach of the year, right? Like what you know, I like Dwayne Casey just fine, but like these are big, giant balls kinds of moves.

And with Sayu Jiru is like, I'm doing it. Like I'm gonna like, we can't keep doing the same thing over and over again. And then also in the process of this, like keeping Kyle Lowry who a lot of people were like, well, if you were going to move on for somebody, maybe you should have moved on. I mean, he did go for Conley. Well, yeah. But still, like it works out, right? It didn't work out.

These things worked out incredibly. And he lands on Kauai Leonard, who, now, you know, we'll see what happens with Kauai Leonard in the off season. But like, for all of this to be orchestrated, takes supreme faith in yourself and like just giant stones. Supreme faith in yourself, giant stones a don't give an F attitude where you're not worried about how fans or the rest of the league is going to perceive the deals you make. And ultimately, that's what separates a lot of franchises across sports. There are certain teams that they have ownership and they're worried about what the fans think, worried about what the media thinks.

There are certain franchises they don't care. They're just going to do the moves that they perceive as the moves that are best for their franchise. And with Masayu Jiri, from the jump, he has wanted to do what was best for the franchise. And from the start, he thought it was rebuilding. When he first got hired, he was trying to move Kyle Lari, trying to move pieces in order to rebuild. In 2017, at the time that I wrote the Blow It Up article, I had heard from a source close to the raptors that said they were still thinking about trying to make a big trade to either blow it up and rebuild. build or totally tweak things. And then what happens is you can't make a deal.

You changed the system in Dwayne Casey's last season and you have a great year, flame out in the end of the postseason, fire him, the coach of the year. Like you said, and hire the guy Nick Nurse, who reportedly was the one pushing for the changes in the first place. And Nurse, what a year for him. Besides that timeout blunder at the end of game five, this guy made nearly every single right move throughout the entire postseason from sticking with Van Vleet, the way they integrated all their role players,

integrating Norman Powell into the rotation, trusting Seacom, so on and so forth. Nick Nurse proved himself as a quality, quality NBA coach. When entering the postseason, he was unproven. Now he's probably a top 10 coach in the league. He goes and elevates Nick Nurse from an assistant to the main guy.

When Nick Nurse, like, aside from being an assistant under Dwayne Casey. Like before that, like he's had this like weird career in various NBA minor leagues where he was in the G League and the D League and like in the BBL, the British basketball league, which if you've ever been to England, like nobody in England knows exists because they don't give a shit about basketball. And like that's the guy that you go and tap to be your guy, which is kind of frigging

crazy. And, you know, like again, all credit to beside because like he goes out and identifies just a bunch of guys who, you know, he finds Van Fleet who's. undrafted and he gets Pascal what, like 27. They don't have a single lottery pick on the roster. Yeah. Not a single one. Like Norman Powell and all these guys who they like he's just.

Another win for Verno by the way. He's taken by the bucks 46 in the second round and he trades for Norman Powell and he gets a first round picking that deal and that that that pick turns into OG Ananoi who, you know, we didn't see, but who was a very useful player for them and like it just like all these little things that, you know, going adding a Baca last year for Terrence Ross. By the way, if this series had gone differently, let's say Katie is healthy. O.G. is probably somebody you do see because you need that extra long defender on the floor. So it's like this roster even had a little bit more depth with guys that are usable in the finals.

Yeah, but like, you know, upgrading Jonas Valchunis with Gassau. And again, like Gassal, like there were many moments where he disappeared during this postseason and in these finals. But still, more playable than Jonas Valchunus. I mean, he could at least. The playmaking was big. Yeah, his passing was excellent more times than not. And he kind of got over, but not in this game, moments when he would like pass up these open threes. But still, like an upgrade over Valanchun as for sure.

And so credit to Messiah, man, like I can't think of too many other times when it gamble this big paid off. And something else too, like just from what I know this is hard for you because you're a Bostonian and you've long ago forgotten what it's like to win something and like be happy about it, right? as opposed to just expecting that you win you. I know the Bruins went down and you're like, how many months is it been? You're all broken up about it, but like you're numb to it now. Not really. For those of us who,

when it comes few and far between, there are like these special moments. But in the NBA, usually the super team wins, right? Yeah, like the best player usually wins. Usually the best players and the best team win. And I was going back through like all of the teams that have won

in the last however many years. And like the 2016 calves were a fun team because they ended the 50 plus year drought in Cleveland and good for them. But they had LeBron, right? Like, you still have LeBron. The 2015 Warriors, as they were on their way up, kind of felt fun, but then they became a dynastic team. So that, like, in retrospect, you're like, meh, the spurs over the heat was fun, but

there's still the spurs. They're like one of the great organizations in NBA history. Before that, you know, you had the piston, that weird pistons team, O4 Pistons, Chauncy Billups. You had those run of Lakers and Celtics. Of course, you're not going to be rooting for them, you, but not that. the rest of us. Then before that you had the Bulls era. Really like the closest I think that we've come in the last 30 years is maybe the 2011 Mavs team to this Raptors team where you're like,

holy shit, this came out of nowhere. This is super fun. Good for Dallas. They really wanted it. Dirk wanted a championship. Good for them. Like this is a super feel good moment that you don't often get in the NBA where the team that you really didn't think was going to win and then nobody friggin picked. Nobody. I want to find like I defy you to find any like national NBA writer or anybody who covers the NBA or Vegas or 538 or anybody who thought that the rat, I think, I actually think 538 might have favored them, right? Five 38 favored them. But everybody else everywhere thought, no way the Raptors are going to win this. And they pulled it out. And it's just, like, it's in a historic moment and a feel good moment. So yes, I take it back. Burn it all down,

Toronto. Yeah, I think with in regards to Toronto, I wrote this, I forget when it was, it all is mush together right now. But at some point, I mentioned how like this Toronto Raptors team could be the greatest one-hit wonder in NBA history. And maybe in sports history for that manner, when you consider how improbable it was for Toronto to get to this point, as we discussed with their intentions to rebuilds in the past, the fact that Kauai Leonard trade required a freakishly weird nine-game season for him with this weird quad problem when he happens to play for a team

that is okay with accepting a archaic-style player in Demar de Rosen and Jacob Pertl. So much had to break right for this franchise. in order for them to be here. And it could all end. And that's okay. It's okay. It's okay. It's okay.

It's okay. So here's the thing. So here's the thing. We did a fundraiser for Dunkham Cancer on Sunday. And we asked the Raptors fans like, are you guys like, okay if you win the title, and Kawhi leaves. And it was like almost consensus like cheering, excitement. Almost everybody in that crowd.

This is like the hardest of hardcore Raptors fans. Anybody that's that's going to go, you know, go to an event. Yeah. You're a hardcore Raptors fan. So a sample of like 270 people, I feel pretty confident. Raptors fans would be okay with it. Because guess what, man, like it was really funny tonight. Masayu Jerry's on the podium.

Raptors are accepting the trophy and Adrian Origenowski drops. The Washington Wizards are reportedly concerned offering a $10 million dollar contract to Missai Jiri while he's on the podium. During the podium. Woj is the best, man. I love it. I love how much you love that. Wodge is, I mean, I love him for it.

It's an incredible thing too, but like, so that's possible too because we've spent so much time, you know, who knows what Maasai is going to do. But we've spent so much time talking about Kauai and what Kauai is going to do and Kauai and dine and people offering in penhouses and you can never, you'll never have to pay for food again and you never have to pay for drinks again in Toronto's years forever. I think he has enough money to pay for food. Yeah, of course, of course. But like we spent so much time focusing on him and what they're going to do with the roster.

and it's possible that the guy who put the roster together in the first place, and Nick Nurse was talking about what an incredible job he did, it's possible that he could be gone. And like this whole thing, if that ends, what a candle in the friggin' win this was, right? Like this one bright,

shining moment of the season for the Toronto Raptors and then all of a sudden, like next year everybody could be gone. Like, that's crazy town. It's nuts, dude. It's not a championship team.

Yeah, it's not often that a star player leaves a team that makes the finals. We saw it from LeBron and with Kauai letter this year, it could be a player that actually won the finals. This has never happened. And so for Kauai, to me, it's like, L.A. is not going anywhere. I think if you're Kauai, you've got to look at this situation, how great it was. Everybody else in this team has one year left in their deal, you got to probably sign the

one and one and go for it back to back. Unless, like, your family is like, we need to be in L.A. now. Unless it's all about family, I think this situation here. It's a great situation. I don't think he's going to go back, though. Every indication, and I have no inside information. I just think that, like, it makes it easy for everybody to just go do their own thing now. Like if Maasai wants to go take the money grab and Kauai wants to go to L.A.

And, you know, they all scattered to the wind. Like, hey, man, you just brought a championship parade to Toronto and all of Canada. And as you said, it's all gravy. It's good. Everybody can go now. Everybody's cheering them and, like, they'll wish you well. And, like, you did something that a lot of people. didn't think was possible.

It's awesome, man. It really is. I'm excited for that city. I know the situation with the Katie thing at the end of game, during game five left a sour note in some people's, you know, it is a sour note on the fandom there in Toronto. But guess what, man, like, there's just only a handful of scumbags that did that.

The majority of those Raptors fans out there are passionate about their team. Canada loves basketball. And I think if you're looking at like the big picture implications of this championship win for the Raptors, the past great players that came through Toronto, guys like Chris Bosch, that helped instill basketball in a child's mind. It made kids want to pick up a basketball.

So you think, look at this team and how this run happened, back from 1-0 against the Magic, back from 2-1 against the 6ers, back from 2-0 against the Bucks, and then holding off this comeback by the Warriors and winning the series, 4-2, winning three games at Oracle Arena

for the final games for the Warriors at Oracle Arena. What a special run for the team. I can't believe it went down this way. Imagine being a kid 10 years old in Toronto or anywhere in Canada watching this team. Like you're going to love basketball for the rest of your life. And that's like the thing that really makes me happiest is that basketball is going to only continue to grow even more in Canada, just like it has this past decade plus. There's going to be a whole bunch of young Canadian basketball players that grow up and eventually make the NBA or play college basketball. Maybe because of this run that Kauai Leonard and the Raptors have made.

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That's S-H-O.com slash city. City on a Hill airs Sundays at 9 p.m. only on showtime. And now, back to heat check. If I told you that the way that this series went down was that the Raptors were going to win three games on the road at Oracle. You're BS and me gone. You're B.S and me. Three of their four wins were going to be in Oakland.

You'd be like, that's impossible. That's definitely not going to happen. And I would have agreed. I would know why we were even talking about this? This is stupid. If they could steal one or two, that would be a way for them to win. But three is just absurd.

Though if you did tell me, Clay misses one full game and then he gets hurt in the other. And Katie only plays 12 minutes and none of those minutes are at Oracle. Then I would have said, all of a sudden changes. Maybe. So let's talk about the Warriors. As we're recording this, Woge again, your guy tweeted out that it's an ACL injury for Clay Thompson.

So now you know for sure that you're not going to have KD next year at all if he decides to even stick around. Like there's multiple possibilities. We'll get into that in a second. But for Clay Thompson, who's also going to be an unrestricted free agent, now you've got an injury concern for him as well. And ACL players come back from that. But still, it's not ideal. Nobody wants that. he's limping out on crutches.

It was just like for him to come out in that game. Kevin, he played 32 minutes. I wrote about this for the ringer.com about what an incredible performance it was for Clay and what what a gutsy effort it was. 32 minutes in the game, he had a game high 30 points. He went 10 or 10 from the free throw line, four of six from three point line. When he gets hurt and you see Steph Curry like grimace and he's grabbing his knees and he's like sitting on the cord in the fetal position, not in the fetal position, but with his knees up. towards his chest. If he was on a side,

it would have been in the fetal position. But you could see how upset he was about the whole thing. That's right down is the way he was set with sitting. Yeah, but you could see how upset he was about the whole thing. And then it was utter shock. Utter shock for everybody. Everybody was,

had lost their mind. Like, I can't believe that this is happening again to the warriors in this moment to an incredible player. And then he comes back out to shoot the free throws. Oh, awesome. The place lost at shit. That was so awesome.

What was your, I mean, like, I'm watching that going, this can't be possibly happening. So we're sitting up there, and to my left, there's a couple screens playing the TV broadcast. And, like, Clay's gone down the tunnel. And then I see him on the broadcast. I don't know if this was aired live. I'm not sure if this was like a camera.

But, like, saw Clay turn around. And I'm like, Clay's coming back. Clay's coming back. And I know, I know the explosion is coming from Oracle Arena. And, boy, I almost went deaf. There was some really loud moments. Yeah. Isaac was worried about us.

Isaac was worried about our ears. Did you bring air plugs? I always have them in my bag for flights because I like, you know, if I'm still doing. Did you wear them tonight? I didn't wear them tonight because I wanted to hear what was happening. I would never wear them like in an arena, but it was loud enough where you'd consider it. Yeah, you know, I had a scare with tinnitus a couple years back after going to a concert. I forget what.

And for like maybe six, six, seven weeks. I had some subtle ringing in my ears. And I was like, damn, I might have this for the rest of my life. I might have a for those of life. I didn't. It faded away. I'm glad you didn't. And I'm good now.

Sometimes I hear it like if I don't get enough sleep. However, don't take your hearing for granted. Don't take your hearing for granted. Don't be ashamed of wearing air plugs at concerts or at sporting events. Protect your hearing. This is a good PSA in the middle of the heat check basketball pod. Let that be listened to all you basketball fans out there. It's completely true.

But back to Clay Thompson for a minute. By the way, we're doing hearing tests where I'm doing like noises in your one ear and asking you to signal. It was Clay's three. start with the loudest, too. Because he had some just outrageous shots off the dribble, including a stepbacks, pull up, whatever it was on the left side of the court. But he came back out for those free throws. And we found out later on the reason why I was because he didn't realize that there was a rule

that if you don't take those free throws, if you go out immediately, you can't come back afterwards. So he came back out. He shot the free throws because at that point, he thought I might be able to still play the game. He's doing frigging jacks, which Dremont didn't realize. And Dremont said, it doesn't surprise me. He's nuts. So he takes the free throws and then he's like hobbling back up the court. And I'm thinking to myself, my God, is this like modern day Willis Reed moment where he's going to try to gut this out?

And of course he couldn't end up gutting it out. And they took him out. And that was, and that was it. Those two points sort of came back to bite him. He ends up. Well, yeah. I mean, he ends up limping off the, limping out of the arena on crutches. And we find out now that he has an ACL tear.

But like that kind of performance from Clay, you know, We saw him come back from the hamstring injury earlier in the series. And then for him to do that and to go back out there and shoot those free throws, like what an incredible performance. I know he couldn't finish. It's terrible that he got hurt. They're all super devastated about it. And it could have ripple effects for the Warriors.

But, oh, my God. Big time. Big time. First of all, if KD doesn't play in game five, he was the trigger to give them a chance at a 3-1 comeback with his first quarter performance, the night he had, gave goal, and stayed a shot. if that didn't happen. Clay doesn't play in game six.

There is no game six. We're not here in San Francisco tonight. We're not talking here. And Clay never tears as ACL. So now for Golden State, regardless of what happens with KD, regardless of what happens with Clay Thompson, Clay's going to be out until at least February or March,

maybe longer. Katie's likely to miss all of next season. He might not even be with Golden State. For the Warriors moving forward, looking ahead at next season, you look at the Western Conference. They're going to be battling for like six, seven, or eight spot.

unless they make just some significant changes to the rest of the roster this summer. Because guess what? What we saw in the finals by the Raptors is what's going to be happening in the Steph Curry all damn season. Teams just smothering him off every single screen action on ball and off ball.

It's going to be hell for him. Blitzing the hell out of them. Yes. Unless they make the necessary changes. And oh, by the way, they better think about making some big changes here. And I'm not sure they're out there for them. for salary cap reasons, but Andrea Godala getting old.

Sean Livingston, getting old. He had a good night tonight, he had a really good night, especially in the defense event. Was his playoff before? It was his playoff high for this postseason. Very good night.

It's like with Andrea Godala, you're having him for these nights. For the whole regular season, he's pacing himself to this point. Same is true for Draymond Green. He's also pacing himself. So it's like this team that just went to five straight finals and that,

as Steve Kerr alluded to after the game, maybe that's one of the reasons why the wear and tear contributed to these injuries with clay and katy brought it up of five straight seasons of 100 plus games yeah exactly but now they're not going to be able to coast during the regular season in order to get into the playoffs these guys are going to have to bust their ass the entire year in order to get into the loaded west which is wild to say considering where they've come from the past five years but without clay until midseason or longer and maybe no katy at all that's going to be their reality next year I feel bad for Clay and KD that they got hurt.

Weeping for the Warriors on the whole, though, is a tough prospect, but also counting them out as dangerous, too. And Jermont even said this after the game tonight where it has felt like you and I and Devine and all the people that we see when we're, you know, on the road for these NBA games have talked about this at length that this series and this postseason has taken on, you know, with KD and everybody assuming that this was even before the injury. But with KD, everybody assuming he was going to leave. it's taken on this weird like end of a run air to it and a lot of the players were talking about that after the game sometimes unprovoked flat out talking about it and draymond was like yeah i've heard that and i think that's dumb like we're not done yet like why would you count us out if you're gonna start worrying about the warriors though over the last five years this is obviously the moment yeah it's all the reasons you just outlined you know in my in my article that'll be up on the ringer

on friday morning we we started off with a quote from bob myers this is during the final last year, the finals that they won. He said, quote, I definitely know this is ending. I don't need any reminders. The narrative is this will go on forever. On the record, it can't. Nothing does, especially in a sport where the competition is so great. And I think this series between Toronto and Golden State outlines so much about how the gap was closed between Golden State and the rest of the league. At one point, Golden State was ahead of the curve with their pace they played with, ahead of the curve with their three-point shot distribution. And now the Raptors, a team that just two years ago was behind the eight ball.

They were taking so many mid-range jumpers with Dwayne Casey's offense with the Marta Rosen. And now they're taking 33, three-pointers in the game. They're taking as many threes. About 40% of their shots have been threes of this series, about equal to goal in state, ignoring mid-range for the most part, except for later in the shot clock. Toronto is playing a quote unquote progressive modernized style now whereas Golden State has stayed the same

over the past four or five seasons so with the Warriors the margin has closed from them a little bit sort of like it has for Houston even though Houston has continued shooting more threes but they were once further ahead of the curve because everybody is shooting more threes it's just happening so if a Golden State

I wonder moving forward whatever guys get healthy how does the system change over time And what are the things Steve Kerr does in order to adapt over? Do you start shooting more threes to Stefan Curry? Do you surround him with shooters and start running more pick and roll, something that you haven't done, a league low rate the past five seasons? How does this team change in order to sustain success?

Because the opportunity is there to, despite the clay injury, torn ACL, he should be fine. He should be able to get back from that. But how do you keep getting better? How do you keep staying in contention like teams like the Spurs have, like teams like the Patriots, like the 49ers of the 80s, all these dynasties that were able to sustain success for 10 plus years. How can the Warriors do that? This is their seventh straight year of making the playoffs,

five straight years of making the finals, winning three of them. But how do you keep it going for three more years to get to a decade and then X amount more for as long as you can? Change needs to happen to the roster and to the system. You bring up a really good point about the gap closing and teams playing their style almost better than them. I mean, tonight, Steph Curry had the same number of three-point attempts as Fred Van Fleet that we mentioned.

And by the way, and by the way, it took him until a minute and 23 left in the first quarter before Steph Curry got up his first shot. Twelve players in this game took a shot before Steph Curry on a night when you didn't have Kevin Durant. Like, you would have expected if they were going to win, Steph Curry had to go Supernova. And he was like pretty much invisible until like the first quarter was almost over. And that speaks to the way Toronto was able to defend him by helping off non-shooters or average shooters, blitzing Stefan Curry, trapping him, putting two, sometimes three guys on him. And that speaks to the flaws of the rest of the roster. Bob Myers and the front office need to take a long look at this roster here and be like...

It's tough when you got four max guys. Yeah, it's really hard. And that's where with this team, I look at it and like, okay, if you have, let's say it's not four. Let's say Katie goes. Let's say you keep Clay. Draymond one year left on his deal before he hits free. And he's going to want to get paid after that. If you have those three guys, they add up to around $110 million.

Those three alone, your amount of flexibility to add a song supporting cast. It's hard, man. You need to hit every single draft pick that you make the next two years. Or you're going to struggle to find guys. You're going to be looking at the fringes of free agency because Iguidal is not getting any younger. Sean Livingston already stinks. And he's not able, in my opinion, He had a solid night, but consistently he's not able to contribute at this level anymore.

Quinn Cook is too small. Andrew Bogot can't defend anymore when that was supposed to be what you had him for. We saw Buggy. Alfonso McKinney. Yeah. Solid, but not the guy you're going to rely on. Jonas Durebko, I love him. He's a solid role player, but not a guy that you're going to rely on in the NBA finals.

And Boogie, odds are he's going to get paid somewhere else. And Kavon Looney, guess what? He's also an unrestricted free agent, and he might get paid. somewhere else as a quality rotation big man for the 25 30 minute range golden state could be even more depleted next season even more it's crazy it's nuts man it really it really is in regards to draymond though like he's the guy to me and again this is like something i had a article tomorrow where it's like if you're golden state today by the time people are listening to it yeah yeah if you're looking at golden state joe lake up said last year that he wants his team to be like the spurs

you can look at the spurs and what are the things that they valued over years continuity and keeping their core together of the years Tim Duncan, minor genoably Tony Parker and the Warriors have that big three

with Steph Curry, Clay Thompson and Draymond Green Dremont was awesome tonight except for the eight turnovers except for the fact he'll lose 23 pounds during the regular season in order to get himself into shape

but other than that and he also had some poor defensive performances within this series too taking unnecessary risks and so with Dremon to me foul trouble technical foul trouble

all that stuff is true yes and to me with Dremont if you want to get crazy and if you want to take a risk to me Dremont is a guy that you at least try to think about trading this summer because if he's going to get paid in 2020 he's going to be the wrong side of 30 a guy who's 6'7 whose weight has always fluctuated

we might have seen during the season what he looks like at 33 a step slower a good defender not an all time great defender a sloppy playmaker who sometimes makes some nice plays for you but sometimes sometimes blows it with eight turnovers tonight. Like, Draymond is the heartbeat of this team.

And it's hard for me to even say that because I love him as a player. But if there's one guy you're looking at and you're like, maybe he's the piece that we get rid of in order to sustain success for longer, it may be him. Yeah. It might be him. And I think that the, I mean,

the eight turnover is obviously not good, but I also feel like sloppy, man. They were, but I also feel like he was trying to do a lot in this game because somebody had to do something. And Clay was shooting the hell out of the ball. But Steph, as you said, that they took him away.

Dre was basically Draymond and Andrei Gwadal and that was basically it Sometimes you can do more by doing less though There was a couple of times where it's like I'm sitting there again like me and Nick watching the game together Nick at one point was like Draymond what are you doing turn over like before it happens like you can see it coming and same with a couple of the decisions that DeMarcus cousins made I mean he had to you know he sure yeah there's some things that help but you just need to Have somebody try something The Warriors are going to have a long offseason to have a long offseason to have of them. The Toronto Raptors, whatever happens. It's all good now, Canada. Congratulations to you.

Before we go, because we're going to wrap this up and head off to do other things. Kevin O'Connor, dunk on cancer, you put this together in honor of your father. It's a great effort. You had a gathering in Toronto where you had a bunch of people out from the NBA to talk about it. Give us an update. How we doing? So dunk on cancer, we ended the finals with 33 dunks, not as much as expected, but 33 dunks, that's okay. We still raise a total of $66,376,000 from Dunk on Cancer. That's from people making their one-time donations, people making their donations per dunk during the finals.

That's from people at the show that we ran in Canada, dunk on cancer and NBA Finals fundraiser where about 270 people showed up, and they put money into a raffle. Every single dollar went to cancer research. the people who bought the tickets, every buck went towards Dunk on Cancer as well. So $66,000 is pretty good. And for the next 48 hours, the people want to donate more, they're able to. Go donate more people.

It's a really good thing to Kevin did. Dunk on Cancer.com. Thank you to everybody who has donated or share the link in to everybody who showed up at the event as well. That was an awesome night, man. Yeah, it looked like it was really fun. It was so damn fun. I'm glad you did that. I'm glad you did this.

You'll be on all kinds of podcasts coming moving forward. We've got draft coverage. going forward. We've got free agency coming up. The NBA season is over. The NBA season continues. For Kevin O'Connor. One week away from the draft gone. Hell yeah. I'll be doing some draft coverage with you. It's going to be great. We pivot. We continue. It never ends. Kevin O'Connor, thank you for doing this. Isaac Lee back in the studio in Los Angeles. I will see you soon. Thank you for doing this. And to all of you who stuck with us all season long on heat check, we really appreciate it. The ringer appreciates everybody that has signed on and hooked on with us

and messes with us. We like it. It means the world, everybody. It really does. Gang, thank you. We'll be back soon. See ya.