Tomorrow is the one-year anniversary of the Toronto Raptors winning the 2019 NBA championship. They did it with a roster that some believed wouldn’t achieve such an accolade — even with the addition of star Kawhi Leonard.
It’s a roster that president Masai Ujiri and general manager Bobby Webster constructed with their brilliant basketball minds, with actions like the signing of Fred VanVleet and drafting Pasacal Siakam. But they also had to get lucky. The New York Knicks had to decline the trade that would’ve given them Kyle Lowry, with James Dolan fearing he was going to lose again — having already been embarrassed in the Andrea Bargnani trade.