2019 NBA Postseason: The Toronto Raptors are NBA Champions!

[PAOerfulone]

KLAMarine said:

NightlyPoe said:

Maybe I'm a bit biased, but I was never a big fan of those Cavs teams as a total team package.  Also, the Heat were challenged by Chicago and Indiana, so it's not difficult to imagine this Raptors team giving them a lot of trouble.

Anyway, Durant's injury does indeed seem to be his Achilles.  It's been something that's been speculated for awhile that it wasn't really a calf injury as he was icing lower than the calf in practice.  If he did tear it, that quarter he played last night might well put him on the shelf almost all next season and mark the end of his reign as a dominant player.  Best case scenario, unless your name happens to be Dominique Wilkins, is that it takes a couple of years to return to form and by then he'll be 33-34.  If I'm a GM, I don't think I'm betting my franchise on that (though I'm sure several would).

He's gotta stay with Golden State, right?  The whole idea of being his own man and carrying New York or whoever on his back with Kyrie would just be delusional.  Golden State is now the only place that makes sense for him.  They can give him the biggest contract and he can recover in his own time.  The whole idea that the Warriors don't need Durant has been shot the last couple weeks anyway.

Wow, an Achilles injury sounds like serious business.

It is. Look what happened to Kobe Bryant. He was having one of the best individual seasons of his career and then BAM, tears his Achilles (against Golden State, ironically enough), and he was never the same again. When he suffered that injury, that was the end of Kobe Bryant as we knew him. Granted, Kobe was already 34 years old when it happened, he was past prime and close to the end of his career anyways. Kevin Durant is still 30 and still in his prime. But this is the type of injury that can cut down a man's prime right where it is. Even if he does make a full recovery, which usually takes around 4-6 months, he may not be the same player he was before. He'll still be really good, but not "best player in the world" calibur.