“With ifs, we would put Paris in a bottle”… Would the Raptors have won the title if Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson had not been injured in the 2019 Finals? Would the Raptors have won the title if they had not traded DeMar DeRozan for Kawhi Leonard? The former has his answer.
“I felt like after the year we had, we just needed one more piece to push us over the top. LeBron brought that piece to the West. And I didn't get to see what would have happened,” says the Kings rookie. “As I have the greatest confidence in myself, I have no doubt that it would have given the same result.”
The LeBron Scarecrow
It should be remembered that before LeBron James joined the Lakers in 2018, he had just played eight straight finals, with the Heat and then the Cavaliers, but also that the Raptors had come up against these same Cavaliers three times in the playoffs. The departure of the “King” had reshuffled the cards in the East.
“I don't want to discredit these guys, they won and they deserved it” says DeMar DeRozan. “I even got to the point where I was happy for them. That's really how I feel. But the only person we couldn't beat was LeBron. That's just the way it is…”
