Important Takeaways From The 2019 NBA Finals

After 24 years, the Toronto Raptors are NBA champions. They sent the Golden State Warriors home in a Game 6 classic, which was unfortunately overshadowed by Klay Thompson's knee injury.

Before the offseason is in full swing, what should be remembered the most about this series? On the Warriors' side, what does it mean about the future?

It takes a perfect collection of veterans, and Masai Ujiri pulled it off

To capture a championship — much less steal one from a team that's prepared for anything — it takes more than just a superstar. In this era of basketball, the competition is at such a high level that you can't solely bank on one dominant force leading you to 16 playoff wins. Since it's a war of attrition, the task requires a handful of players with experience in adverse situations. When someone goes down or when high-usage stars hit a slump, there has to be a level of comfortability from the role players. Enough that allows them to fill in the gap and weather the storm.

Organizations try for years — and decades — to find the right formula of roster construction. Most of the time, it just requires luck. The timing has to fall perfectly in your lap. The price has to make sense.

For the Raptors, everything finally broke their way. Simply pointing to LeBron James's departure from the East is, quite honestly, lazy. This iteration of the Raptors wouldn't have just beaten the James-led Cavaliers from last year ... it probably would have humiliated them. So, it was more than just an opponent being a roadblock.

Toronto's President of Basketball Operations, Masai Ujiri, formulated one of the most impressive and successful missions you will ever see. Over the course of eight months, he retooled the roster with veterans that know what type of fortitude it takes to win deep into May and June.

Experience is usually a buzzword in sports that aggravates me. Throughout the years, the intangible aspects of developing a successful basketball team just haven't mattered nearly as much, in my eyes, as obtaining versatile and efficient talents.

However, the 2019 Raptors were able to hoist the Larry O'Brien Trophy on Thursday night because they valued the experience factor. More importantly, they made sure those veterans embodied the puzzle pieces that needed to fit together on the court.

It will forever be underrated how Ujiri managed to swing Danny Green in the famous July 2018 trade for Kawhi Leonard. You just don't see a 59-win team drastically improve their rotation with two starters. Leonard's presence alone would've been a home run. Ujiri made the first eyebrow-raising splash when he stole two San Antonio Spurs and directed them to the Raptors' distinguished medical staff and sports science program, led by Alex McKechnie. Two players that were dealing with injury concerns arguably had career seasons with this 2019 Raptors squad.

Ujiri wasn't finished wheeling and dealing once the schedule started. Pulling the trigger on parting with Jonas Valanciunas, a scoring punch off the bench they loved having, and the playmaking duties of Delon Wright was necessary if he wanted to obtain something more impactful. Marc Gasol's presence on the floor, as well as in the locker room, gave the Raptors another dynamic. It unlocked a style they needed to adapt and allowed them to brush up on some essentials in the halfcourt before making the playoff push.

Before the All-Star break, Toronto averaged 292.8 passes per game, which ranked 19th in the league. After the break, with Gasol being incorporated into the offense, they averaged 313.5 passes and ranked fifth. The ball movement was emphasized more and more after his arrival, primarily because he's able to incentivize hard cuts with his vision from the pinch-post.

Obtaining Leonard is a no-brainer. But the reason you obtain Gasol and Green was obvious throughout this NBA Finals. With veterans that have years of playoff experience, and ones that fit the age range of 30-34, it's not that teams bank on consistent All-Star production every night. That's what the stars usually provide. It's that it gives your team more chances, or a higher likelihood, of having standout performances.

With capable veterans, even if they aren't quite what they used to be, the probability of getting a monumental five-minute stretch is higher than it would be if a team was mostly comprised of young inexperienced pieces.

Toronto might not win Game 1 and take care of business at home without Gasol's 20 points in 30 minutes. They were able to hit Golden State with multiple daggers in Game 3 because of Green's 6-of-10 shooting display from three. Both Gasol and Green had a couple rough games throughout the series, but the point of having veteran role players is so you can trust somebody in the moments when the main offensive cogs don't have it.

In the Finals, Toronto had six players average at least 11 points per game and five players average at least eight shot attempts. They found the right mix of guys and stuck to a shallow rotation. The teams that extend it to nine or 10 players in the Finals are usually the ones desperate for answers.

This series also elucidated the importance of filling that rotation with versatile defenders. Ujiri grabbing Gasol at the deadline to ensure Nick Nurse had two defensive centers that highlighted their strengths in different forms of coverage is what elevated them to the scariest defense in the postseason.

Kawhi Leonard, in the heart of his prime, is building a rock solid résumé

Taking home his second Finals MVP award, Leonard just completed one of the most hellacious playoff runs the league has seen. His marks of 30.5 points, 9.1 rebounds, and 61.9% true shooting have only been matched five other times in postseason history (minimum 10 games). Three of them were by LeBron James, and the other two by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar:

Out of those six postseason tears, Leonard played the most games and minutes. He also tied James's memorable 2018 journey through the East in scoring efficiency.

If we adjust for pace — since the game is much faster now than it was in the 1990s — it gets interesting when you put Leonard's 2019 playoffs in perspective. Out of all players in history to score at least 27 points per 75 possessions and play at least 20 playoff games, Leonard finished tied for eighth all-time in scoring. He's tied with Kobe Bryant's 2009 and 2010 championship quests — except he is a few levels above Bryant in true shooting.

The seven players above Leonard in scoring per 75 playoff possessions is a pretty iconic class: Dirk Nowitzki (2011), Allen Iverson (2001), LeBron James (2014 and 2018), Hakeem Olajuwon (1995), and Michael Jordan (1992 and 1998). Only one of those runs listed was more efficient than Leonard's. It was James, ironically during the year Leonard knocked him off in the Finals.

Toronto's offensive leader doesn't turn 28 until later this month. In the first eight years of his career (one of which he missed 73 games), Leonard has compiled quite the list of accomplishments:

• Two-time NBA champion
• Two-time Finals MVP
• Three-time All-Star
• Two-time All-NBA First Team
• All-NBA Second Team
• Two-time Defensive Player of the Year
• Three-time All-Defensive First Team
• Two-time All-Defensive Second Team

He is well ahead of the traditional path some the most venerable idols have taken. Michael Jordan was 28 when he finished off the remains of the Showtime Lakers for his first NBA title. That jumpstarted his first three-peat, but he faced a ton of criticism before finally tasting the champagne. LeBron James was 27 when he downed the Thunder in the 2012 Finals for his first ring. While James has such a substantial margin in regular season accolades due to his unreal longevity, Leonard's postseason (and defensive) achievements are beginning to stack up nicely.

The NBA world was robbed of a full season from Leonard in 2017-18 when the quadricep issue affected him. Now that he's fully back, he has picked up right where he left off.

This championship for the city of Toronto gives Leonard something unique. He is now the only player to ever win a Finals MVP from both conferences (Milwaukee was part of the West when Abdul-Jabbar won his first).

Taking a page out of James's book, Leonard has now guided two separate teams to the promised land. The only question that remains is if he wants to continue the run up North. If he elects to stay, he has a great chance of moving quickly up the all-time ranks. His career impact has already garnered top 20 status based on the postseason success.

The Warriors were hit with the worst luck in Finals history, and the damaging effect is a real concern

This has to be the first time in professional sports that a team has lost two of its three best players to career-altering injuries in the same series. It truly felt like it was straight out of a horror story.

Kevin Durant suffering his ruptured Achilles' tendon in Game 5, after playing 12 electric minutes, was terrible enough. He is sidelined until at least March 2020, with the Warriors indicating that he would miss the whole next season if he's a member of their roster.

Klay Thompson, currently holding the belt as the toughest player that everyone in the league respects, couldn't escape that devastating injury bug. By tearing his ACL in the final minutes of the third quarter Thursday, he is facing a 8-12 month rehab process.

For the first time in the Steve Kerr era, the Warriors are looking at severe injuries that could strip them of title-contending status moving forward. It immediately takes the breath out of the organization and doesn't provide a positive outlook as they move into the Chase Center this September.

The ripple effects these injuries will have across the league are staggering. It immediately weakens the prohibitive favorite in the Western Conference. As cold and unpleasant as it sounds, teams that were waiting in the shadows and hoping Durant or Thompson would re-sign elsewhere just got lucky. The window cracked open wider than ever before.

All of the West playoff seeds (Denver, Houston, Portland, Utah, Oklahoma City, and the L.A. Clippers) now have to pounce and make all of the necessary moves. That can include pulling off a trade for a star such as Anthony Davis to unequivocally shift the power their way, or making a few tweaks on the margins. Taking advantage of a Warriors team that will most likely feature Stephen Curry as the only perimeter scoring threat is now a strong possibility.

The New York Knicks also have to be sickened by the Durant injury, as it throws a heavy wrench into their chances of landing two prominent stars.

This is why it's a major concern for the Warriors moving forward:

• If Durant and Thompson re-sign with their bird rights, it will be well over $70 million committed to two players that will miss 60-plus games (or the entire year). Golden State would only have a small amount of financial options to fill out their depth. Around Curry and Draymond Green, they would need as much spacing as possible. If they elect to re-sign Cousins for interior purposes, that's a resource they aren't using on athletic youth or shooting.
• If Durant leaves and Thompson re-signs, what has to be understood is that Golden State is still massively over the salary cap and will still have limited resources to use on new rotation pieces. They can't just replenish Durant's services with the money he's slated to receive.
• By the time Durant and Thompson fully return to the court, they will be 32 and 30, respectively. Durant will turn 32 before the start of the 2020-21 season and Thompson turns 30 next February. When you factor in Curry and Green's wear and tear by then, the Warriors' core would likely be entering the final stages of its prime. The Hamptons Five will probably not play another minute together again, unless Andre Iguodala wants to play two more years (unlikely).

General Manager Bob Myers and the medical staff will have a tough decision to make involving Durant and Thompson next winter. If they choose to return on long-term contracts, the franchise won't want to risk the future health of their players. Thus, even if both want to get back on the court in 2019-20, would it really make sense for anyone to drop them into a game right before the playoffs?

Don't get it twisted – Golden State's run is still among the greatest

In the aftermath of this Finals loss for Golden State, the odd approach to take would be questioning how impressive their five-year dynasty has been. Even if they only took home three trophies during that span, it should still be classified as a dynasty for one reason: Every team in the league has been doing anything and everything to reach their level the entire time.

Inching closer to dethroning Goliath meant organizations had to make drastic changes. If everyone is chasing you for five years, that should mean something.

Green is probably correct when he says the funeral shouldn't be held for this team yet. But if it does spiral downward from here, the Warriors finished one win shy of 400 under Kerr:

They outscored opponents by nearly 4,500 points in 515 games. It's something the basketball universe might never see again. This just doesn't happen over half a decade.

What will sting for Durant, especially, is that he physically couldn't do anything to prevent the second Finals defeat.

Kyle Lowry deserves this more than anyone

For the Raptors' franchise, Kyle Lowry Over Everything (KLOE) is what ultimately got them to this point. They trusted him after years of playoff disappointments and Ujiri was wise enough to keep Lowry on board when he could've traded him.

In Raptors' history, no player has more career win shares than Lowry. He's above DeMar DeRozan despite playing 178 fewer games. He's even above Chris Bosh.

Nobody has meant more to the franchise's growth into a (consistently) competent team in the East over the years. Those four straight 50-plus win seasons have Lowry's handprint all over them. His leadership on the court and prominent voice around the team is why they could sit Leonard for 22 games and go 17-5 during that stretch.

For the last four years, specifically, the conversations around Lowry's playoff reputation have reached exhausting levels. To viewers, one game of atrocious shooting seemingly outweighs three straight games of contributing all of the little things on the court that help claw out victories. Bad scoring nights have prompted some to question the validity of his regular season All-Star appearances, which always feels weird.

Now, he can be vindicated.

Over the last two playoff runs in Toronto (34 games), Lowry has averaged 15.7 points and 7.2 assists on 54.3% efficiency from two, 38.5% from three, and 80.5% at the foul line. The four-game sweep at the hands of LeBron James in 2018 wasn't Lowry's fault. He was the one Raptor that played sensationally in a series with three nail-biters.

He has come a long way from shooting in an empty gym after rough playoff defeats, searching for answers.

From Game 1 of the East Finals to the championship-clinching victory over Golden State, Lowry shot 34-of-81 (42%) from deep. His personal 11-2 run at the start of Game 6 is what sparked the most magical night in Raptors history.

"They kill my man all the time in the playoffs," Fred VanVleet said postgame. "He gets more slander than anybody I've ever seen in the league. So to have him be able to hold that trophy up tonight, that's what means the most for us."

From playoff choker to NBA champion, Kyle Lowry finally gets to celebrate his moment.