Are the Toronto Raptors the greatest one-and-done team ever?

Criteria

To set a precedent and remove any ambiguity from the list it’s probably fair to outline some criteria.

The only teams that’ll be considered for the list are teams that won an NBA championship that season. If you’re following history at all, that removes a lot of the water weight and potential competition.

Otherwise, the list could go on forever. Teams that have thrown it all at the wall only to see their efforts fall at the first, second, and sometimes final hurdle. Removing those teams from the equation takes away a lot of unnecessary questioning.

It’s easy to question the legitimacy of a teams success if they don’t go all the way and win it all. You can diagnosis the expectations against how far they actually got, and then whether or not they should even be worthy of the praise.

Therefore, the criteria becomes a little more self-explanatory when you add in the caveat of a title. Not many teams have the privilege of raising a banner at the start of the season. An even smaller percentage of those teams have done it within the timeframe of just one season where they could really contend for the title.

Fortunately for us, one of those teams is the 2018-19 Toronto Raptors, winning their first-ever NBA title. Winning the title on the back of Kawhi Leonard and a hungry cast of veterans and young contributors.

One other team fits the criteria; the Dallas Mavericks of the 2010-11 season, winning the title by knocking off the LeBron James led Miami Heat.

Both teams fall into the category of a one-and-done team. Like many fashion duels, one question remains; who wore it best?