NBA Discussion thread

[JustKelli]

The Raptors made the Warriors their bitch the other night lol
2 more wins Canada

[JustKelli]

The Raptors schooled the Warriors again tonight 105-92 and are 1 win away from their first title and the trophy coming north of the border ...

They can end it Monday at home.

[JustKelli]

Close only counts in horseshoes hand grenades and body odor lol, not in basketball so the Raptors let one get away on them with a 6 point lead with 2 minutes to go after being down as many as 14 at one point. They lost 106-105 as the Warriors close the Raptors series lead to 3-2 with game 6 at Golden State on Thursday where Toronto gets another kick at the can to end it.

WE THE NORTH

[allworkboy]

Toronto wins the NBA championship. Bye Warriors. So much for home field advantage. If they can't win at home, then don't give up their day jobs!

[JustKelli]

Yes basketball has come full circle as the Raptors did the impossible by winning their first NBA championship n 6 gamesThursday with a 114-110 win over the Warriors.

Basketball was invented by a Canadian and the first ever NBA game was played in Toronto in 1946, the New York Knickerbockers vs the Toronto Huskies, the Knickerbockers won 68-66

Well done Raptors as we took our game back from the USA.

They became Canada's team during their unlikely run in the playoffs and dug deep as it all paid off last night with the hoisting of the Larry O'Brien NBA Championship Trophy.

Congratulations and enjoy your spoils Raptors

I have a poster of the game advertisement but it won't load so I will try it later.

[JustKelli]

Wtf is the matter with people making threads and then abandoning them lol?

2019 NBA Draft taking on strong Canadian flavorCanada expected to represent at all levels of Thursday's draft

Jun 19, 2019 9:32 PM ET

Duke's RJ Barrett is one of five Canadian players projected for selection on Thursday.

NEW YORK*— At the same time the 2019 NBA Finals were being decided, Nickeil Alexander-Walker was on the West Coast.

A lottery prospect in Thursday's*2019 NBA Draft, the Virginia Tech sophomore has been working out with his cousin, Clippers guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

A lifelong Toronto Raptors fan, Alexander-Walker was anxious to watch what proved to be the Game 6 clincher against the Golden State Warriors. But even within the time zone, Alexander-Walker struggled to watch his favorite team clinch: just as Toronto was fending off the Golden State Warriors at Oracle Arena in Oakland, Alexander-Walker was making his way through Los Angeles International Airport, apparently without ready access to a big-screen in one of the travelers’ bars or lounges.

“I’m at LAX, I’m on FaceTime and I’m trying to get my friends to show me the screen,” the guard from Virginia Tech said on the eve of the Draft, which*will be held*at Barclays Center in Brooklyn (ESPN, 7 p.m. ET).

“So I’m, like, yelling [as Toronto won]. People at the airport are looking at me like, ‘What the heck is going on with this guy?’” Alexander-Walker said. “I got chills, to be honest. It felt unreal. ‘Did they really just do that?’”

See where the NBA TV analysts project Alexander-Walker in Thursday's Draft.

They did – the Raptors in a span of about two weeks went from hosting the first Finals game played outside the United States to becoming the league’s first champion based outside the U.S. And now Alexander-Walker, Duke’s RJ Barrett and several others like them are about to do more – flood the Draft with Canadians, lending an even stronger maple scent to the NBA’s spring.

“I was jumping up and down screaming, watching the game,” said Barrett, who had a better seat for the clinching game than Alexander-Walker and will have a better spot in Thursday’s talent mart. Barrett is the*consensus No. 3 pick, likely headed to the New York Knicks anywhere from 10 to 15 spots ahead of his countryman from Toronto.

“It means a lot for our whole country,” said Barrett, who grew up outside Toronto in Mississauga, Ontario. He is the son of Rowan Barrett, a Toronto native who played at St. John’s, competed professionally overseas and helped the Canadian national team in the 2000 Olympics and in FIBA world championships.

Not only is the elder Barrett the source of his son’s name – “RJ” is short for Rowan Junior – he also is the current executive vice-president and GM of Canada Basketball. And his good friend Steve Nash, the two-time NBA MVP and Naismith Hall of Famer from Victoria, British Columbia, is RJ’s godfather.

All that pedigree makes Barrett one of the most heralded players in Canada’s hoops history, up there in hype with Minnesota’s Andrew Wiggins, dubbed “Maple Jordan” as he generated excitement growing up in Vaughan, Ontario, before enrolling at Kansas.

“[The Raptors] are the only team we’ve got,” Barrett, the Blue Devils’ 6-foot-7 wing – teammate and roommate of No. 1 prospect Zion Williamson – said of the freshly crowned Raptors. “I remember as a kid watching Chris Bosh, watching DeMar DeRozan. So I can only imagine what the young kids now are doing watching Kawhi Leonard, and seeing the whole team and how they’re doing. Hopefully it inspires the nation.”

RJ Barrett says he cheered after every Raptors' win in Finals.

Canada already ranks as the NBA’s second-biggest source of talent, as noted by commissioner Adam Silver before Game 1 of the Finals last month, with 13 of its citizens on rosters at the end of 2018-19.

This will be the 10th consecutive Draft in which at least one Canadian gets selected, and there likely will be more to follow; according to multiple mock drafts, five players from Canada could hear their names read from the stage at Barclays Center.

In addition to Barrett and Alexander-Walker, the top north-of-the-border prospects include Florida State forward Mfiondu Kabengele of Burlington, Ontario; Arizona State guard Luguentz Dort of Montreal, and Gonzaga forward Brandon Clarke, who was 3 years old when his family moved from Vancouver to Phoenix.

Others with Canadian roots who could be in play Thursday: Michigan forward Ignas Brazdeikis of Oakville, Ontario, and Iowa State guard Lindell Wigginton of Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.

“You see it,” said Barrett, who won’t match Wiggins (2014) or Toronto’s Anthony Bennett (2013) as the first selection overall but has the talent and training to perhaps surpass both in career impact.

“There are more and more Canadian players coming. We’re about to go crazy. We’re about to do some amazing things.”

Ironically, with so much homegrown talent on the board, the Raptors don’t have a first-round pick this year. They hold the No. 59 pick, one from the end, although a frenzied trade market is expected Thursday that could jumble the order of teams from No. 4 through No. 60.

There are more and more Canadian players coming. We’re about to go crazy.

DUKE'S RJ BARRETT

The 2014 draft established Canada’s previous high for NBA selections, with Wiggins, Nik Stauskas and Tyler Ennis going in the first round and Dwight Powell getting picked in the second.

Those were the sort of players Barrett, Alexander-Walker and the others followed when their own games were starting to blossom as young teens. In all, 33 Canadian-born players have competed in the NBA (including lone Naismith Hall of Famer Bob Houbregs, 1953-58. Nash technically doesn’t qualify because he was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, before his family moved to British Columbia.)

But 18 have done so since 2012.

“I feel like I’m the next one, so I’m watching my step,” said Barrett, who led the Atlantic Coast Conference in scoring (22.6 ppg) while breaking Kenny Anderson’s 1991 ACC freshman record for points. “Just trying to do the best I can for my country.”

Said Alexander-Walker: “I remember looking up to the players, guys like Andrew Wiggins. Seeing them get drafted, I was like, ‘Man, I want to do that.’ I believe that there’s kids that will try to follow me. So I try to be the best example I can be.”

What the Raptors accomplished may have a two-fold effect: Inspiring more Canadian kids to hit the blacktop and the gyms, while opening more NBA players’ eyes to Toronto*as a destination market. Or at least one that can be defined by its ability to compete for top players – a re-up by Kawhi Leonard would help with that – and a championship.

The Raptors' NBA Championship celebration was a wild affair.

“It’s the best city in the world,” Alexander-Walker said. “So when you get to play basketball and live in one of the best cities – regardless of weather – you just have to enjoy it.”

Admittedly, the Virginia Tech prospect feels connected, part of the proverbial subject in*We The North, that omnipresent Raptors’ slogan and rallying cry. He’s one of them. Nickeil-Alexander grew up in Ontario rooting for the franchise that is four years older than him.

“As a kid, I missed the Vince Carter era by a little bit. But definitely a big Raptors fan,” Alexander-Walker said. “You were always like, ‘This could be the year.’ And then it wasn’t the year.

[Justshare]

All I know, just thinking about this year free agency makes my head spinning... I wish I could just sleep till all that is done and see NBA landscape for next year.

Talent on this years free agency is mind blowing + AD already made his move even tho he was not free agent!

Board Man, AD, KD, Klay, Kyrie, Kemba, Jimmy Butler, Boogie Cousins, basically half of the 76ers, Beverley, Kanter.

I would like my OKC to get something done, but that's not gonna happen, so I'm cheering for LAC to get the job done this year!

[cajetillax]

Russell signed with Warrriors...WTF!

Al Holford signed with Philly, again... WTF!

[Justshare]

What to say about NY Knicks... Kawhi is their last hope, and that is 0.001% chance.

[cajetillax]

Originally Posted by Justshare

What to say about NY Knicks... Kawhi is their last hope, and that is 0.001% chance.

Yep, Randle is ok, but Bullock, Gibson, Portis,

They should have used that money for a PG, Rubio or Rose for example.