The Toronto Raptors reign over the NBA ended as quickly as it began. Will they go down as the greatest one-and-done team in NBA history?
One-and-done teams and players are a staple of college basketball and have been for a number of years now. The college experience is now all about improving your star brand and getting to the NBA as quickly as possible. Sometimes that works well for a player and other times they rush into the NBA Draft and struggle to make an impact.
NBA teams, on the other hand, rarely enter the realms of one-and-done territory, opting to meticulously build their teams from the ground up until continued success is a viable option as opposed to an unconscious pipedream.
Occasionally, though, the stars align. Front offices gather the resources and capital and decide that it’s time to aim for the moon. The untethered and unbound heights of the NBA Finals, where only one team can win it all. If you play your cards right, it could be you.
It takes skill, the ability to know one’s value, and an immense amount of luck, but teams can jump the queue and punch their ticket to greatness out of nowhere. One such team was the 2018-19 Toronto Raptors.
On the periphery of the elite for the past few seasons, the Raptors have struggled to make an impact in the postseason despite copious amounts of success – and wins – in the regular season. Frequently shunted out of the playoffs by LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers of years gone by, the Raptors weren’t even the bridesmaids of the wedding. They were sat at the table beside the restroom, recounting stories of how it should have been them up on stage as the door of the men’s swings open and hits the back of their chair.
And then, during the summer of 2018, the Raptors were handed a golden ticket. Kawhi Leonard, then of the San Antonio Spurs, wanted out. A relationship fractured beyond repair in the eyes of Leonard, there was no future for him in Texas. It was time to move on.
The rest, as they say, is history. But does the Toronto Raptors title win rank as the best one-and-done season in NBA history?
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?
Dallas Mavericks
Like the Toronto Raptors, the 2010-11 Dallas Mavericks would be reveling in their first-ever NBA championship after defeating the Miami Heat in a rematch of the 2006 NBA Finals, where the Heat overcame the Avery Johnson-led Mavericks in six games.
Fast forward five years and the Mavericks topped the fresh out of the box superteam Heat. The 2010-11 season was LeBron James first season with the Miami Heat, forming a superteam consisting of James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh – formerly of the Raptors.
The perfect start to their tenure would be unattainable, though. The Dirk Nowitzki-led Dallas Mavericks would spoil the party and gain revenge for the loss handed to them years earlier. Nowitzki would go on to win Finals MVP, averaging 26 points, 9.7 rebounds, and two assists per game, shooting just over 41-percent from the field.
The Mavericks run to the title was paved with potential potholes and craters. Making the win that much more impressive.
It started off with the Mavericks defeating the Portland Trail Blazers in six games before sweeping the two-time defending champion Los Angeles Lakers in the second round.
Following on from that, the Mavericks took down the young upstart Oklahoma City Thunder, donning the trio of Russell Westbrook, James Harden, and Kevin Durant. That Thunder team would go on to be one of the biggest “what if?” teams in NBA history but their chemistry on the court was something special. They were a talented team that brought the sauce every night.
The Mavericks came from behind in the fourth quarter of the final three games of the Western Conference Finals, knocking off the Thunder in five games, moving on to take on the brand new Heat superteam.
It took six games, and the biggest comeback in NBA Finals history in Game 2, but the Mavericks toppled the Heat to become NBA champions for the first time.
The Mavericks, looking to defend their title the next season, had to do so without Tyson Chandler and Caron Butler among other free agents who left the team in the summer.
Just like that, a large portion of their championship-winning roster was moving on and the Mavericks were bounced out of the playoffs in the first round. To make the matter more enticing, it was the Thunder who got their revenge, advancing to the NBA Finals where they would be defeated by the Miami Heat, thus starting their reign of terror over the NBA.
As for the Mavericks, they haven’t hit the heights of the NBA Finals since, struggling to make it out of the first round of the playoffs in their last four attempts.
Toronto Raptors
The current-and-defending NBA champions are now most definitely in the category of one-and-done, due to the nature of the 2019 offseason.
Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green arrived in Toronto in a cloud of mystery in the summer of 2018. Both players were free agents at the end of the season and their futures were most definitely in doubt.
The rumblings around the league were that Leonard had eyes for Los Angeles, a tarot card reading that was later determined to be true. The Raptors knew that the talent they had on the roster, combined with the acquisitions of Green and Leonard, and later Marc Gasol, would be enough to contend for a title.
Standing in their way would be the dynastic Golden State Warriors, on the brink of winning their fourth title in five years.
The Raptors stumbled in the opening game of the first round, losing to the Orlando Magic before winning the next four games in convincing fashion. The next round proved to be hell for the Raptors, taking on the uber-talented Philadelphia 76ers. It took seven games and the first-ever Game 7 buzzer-beater in NBA history to take down the Sixers. If that game had gone to overtime, there’s no telling what might have been.
Next up was the first-seed Milwaukee Bucks, led by the soon-to-be MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo. The Bucks had won 60 games and were viewed as a shoo-in against the Raptors. So much so, they took a two-game lead in the series and most analysts called game.
Not the Raptors, though. They fought back to win the next four games, including Game 5 on the road in Milwaukee. Once again, the Raptors had defied the odds.
The Finals against the Warriors proved to be tumultuous at the very least, and people may put an asterisk beside the Raptors win due to the injuries sustained to Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson, but the Warriors were more than any formidable foe. They were the greatest dynasty in NBA history and the Raptors toppled them in six games.
What happened next was what half of the NBA saw coming. Kawhi Leonard left the Raptors to move to L.A. Though, not many people expected him to wind up with the Los Angeles Clippers. With the star power of Leonard – the best player in the NBA right now – gone, the Raptors are no longer viable contenders.
The Ruling
The path for both teams was paved with formidable opponents, such is the nature of the NBA playoffs. It’s rare to find a team that isn’t, at least, a little competitive. The Mavericks, however, were challenged in every series. Better yet, they were viewed as underdogs in every series.
Even against the Portland Trail Blazers in the first round, some analysts picked the Blazers to win the series. Whereas, the Raptors had no such detractors against the Magic. Even with the voodoo of their Game 1 curse lingering over them.
Having to take on the two-time defending champions in the second round and then sweeping them is something not many teams could accomplish. The Mavericks did that, though. Following that up with a win against an ultra-talented Thunder looking to make their mark with three players who would go on to win MVP awards.
Once again, they were clear underdogs.
Such was the case in the Finals too. Even if the Miami Heat hadn’t figured out all of the kinks, they still had James, Wade, and Bosh all on the court at the same time. No one else in the NBA had that sort of star power in their ranks.
The Mavericks taking down three teams as clear underdogs is just too much to discount.
Of course, the Raptors took on two of the most talented teams in the NBA before taking on the Warriors in the Finals. But, even if there is no asterisk beside the title – and there definitely shouldn’t be – it’s hard to look past the fact that the Warriors were banged up beyond belief.
That’s what it takes sometimes, though.
Both teams have arduous paths to their destiny, but with so much going against the Mavericks, it’s close but they may well be the greatest one-and-done team in NBA history. The Raptors aren’t far behind, though.