Up until Klay Thompson went down late in the third period this Game 6 had the feel of a Warrior win. But with an awkward landing coming from contact with Danny Green this Warrior season came to an end as the Raptors won their first ever NBA championship with a 114-110 win inside of Oracle Arena.
Stunning is the only word which can be used to describe these last two games as the Warriors lost both Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson and the Finals—but in all probability their dynasty as well.
Simply stunning. Whether Durant opts in with the Warriors or not he won’t be playing basketball next season and when he does come back he won’t be the same player. Klay Thompson has a torn ACL and it will be a tough rehab for him as well.
Who knows what the Warriors will be next season? I know this though…GM Bob Myer has some gut wrenching decisions in front of him as the season ends and free agency decisions loom.
Jeff van Gundy’s prescient Game 3 comment about what the Warriors are without both Durant and Klay Thompson just became a reality not only for the Warriors, but for every team in the NBA.
The Western Conference for the first time in over half a decade is wide open and we don’t know at this time if NBA Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard will himself be in the West.
We have no idea at this juncture if a new Super Team in the West is about to be formed. But we know this—the Warriors next season will be something different on the court for at the minimum at least one season. This is where we find out what Bob Myers is genuinely made of as a GM and Steve Kerr as a head coach.
For the second time this decade Kawhi Leonard won a Finals MVP and closed down a Super Team run. The first MVP came in 2014 when his Spurs took care of the LeBron/Dwanye Wade run in Miami.
Kawhi Leonard becomes only the third player in NBA history to win an NBA Finals MVP with two different teams. Kareem did it with the Milwaukee Bucks and LA Lakers while LeBron did it with the Miami Heat and Cleveland Cavaliers.
But in this era of stars aligning their own teams who in Canada really knows what the Raptors will be next season and if Kawhi Leonard will still be in town to defend the Raptors title?
This is the NBA in the present.
But we know this one thing the Splash Brothers and the Warriors will both be very different next October when the NBA season gets underway.