How do Raptors stack among league’s best?

OKLAHOMA CITY — Dogs (pronounced “dawgs”), depth and dudes.

The NBA Finals are being contested between two teams that are equally well represented by each of those roster construction categories.

Which goes a long way towards explaining both why the Oklahoma City Thunder and Indiana Pacers are in these Finals to begin with and how the seven-game series is knotted at 2-2 with a pivotal Game 5 slated for Monday at the Paycom Center, where the volume will likely hit a new level of loud.

Each of the entrants is populated with a pack of dogs — tough, competitive role players who bring multiple specific skills to the highest level of competition the NBA has to offer and do it in a fairly ego-less way. Without chafing, wanting more or resenting what others have: think Alex Caruso and Cason Wallace for the Thunder, or Aaron Nesmith and Andrew Nembhard for the Pacers.

And then they have plenty of depth players who fit in situationally and perform either independently of the stars alongside them. The notion that you can win a title with a seven-man rotation seems to have fallen to the wayside — both Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault and his Pacers counterpart Rick Carlisle have used 10 different players for meaningful minutes so far this series.

Of course, you also have your dudes — the Thunder can turn to either league MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who proved his mettle (as if that was necessary) by scoring 15 of OKC’s final 16 points in its comeback win on the road in Game 4, or the emerging Jalen Williams, who earned All-NBA and All-Defence honours in his third season. The Pacers, meanwhile, have All-NBA guard Tyrese Haliburton and veteran Pascal Siakam, who has been named All-NBA twice in his career.

The “Three Ds” are likely worth keeping in mind, even a half-continent and one country away, as the Toronto Raptors try to figure out what it will take for them to become part of the playoff mix again after watching from the outside for four of the past five years and last three straight.

It’s why multiple reports describing Toronto as being aggressive this off-season in trying to upgrade its roster and contend in the Eastern Conference are both predictable and understandable. Raptors president Masai Ujiri telegraphed his intentions back at the trade deadline when he acquired Brandon Ingram and doubled down when he signed him to a three-year, $120 million contract extension.

So what of that fourth D, KD, — former Oklahoma City star Kevin Durant, who is the most tradeable superstar in the league right now since the rumours of Giannis Antetokounmpo have come off the boil for the moment?

Sources suggesting the Raptors were and would be again interested in finding a way to make a deal for Antetokounmpo work are credible, and consistent with the buzz I’ve heard here at the NBA Finals. And the same is true for Durant, who the Raptors were linked to — again, credibly — prior to the 2022-23 season.

According to league sources, the Raptors were monitoring Durant’s availability leading up to the trade deadline this past February so it’s not surprising that the Raptors have been referenced as a team that might be willing to take a one-year “gamble” on Durant, who is under contract for 54.7 million for the upcoming season at age 37.

Durant — who has some leverage on where the Phoenix Suns might send him depending on his willingness to sign an extension with a new team —  has reportedly narrowed his list of preferred destinations to San Antonio, Houston and Miami. That won’t stop the Suns from listening to other offers, or, conceivably, teams like the Raptors from making them — accepting that they may end up paying top dollar for an elite rental.

The Raptors made a similar calculation in the summer of 2018 when they acquired Kawhi Leonard, who only wanted the Spurs to trade him to Los Angeles, and were rewarded with a title and an MVP-level, Finals MVP-winning season from Leonard before he left in free agency.

But it’s been interesting being around these two Finals teams in 2025, wondering if the Raptors might be over-reaching a bit if indeed they are thinking of making a big play for Durant.

Getting KD (a long shot, given his reported preferences, but humour me) would be one thing, but what about the other “Ds”?

A move like that gets you a dude — over his past two seasons, even at age 35 and 36, Durant is all of that as he averaged 26.9 points, 6.3 rebounds and 4.7 assists over 137 games on almost unfathomable efficiency, shooting 57 per cent on two-point field goal attempts and 42.1 per cent on threes against the best defenders the NBA can offer.

And presuming Toronto hangs on to Scottie Barnes — and why else would you make a trade for Durant if not to create a contending-level duo with the Raptors still-developing fifth-year star — there is a reasonable expectation that Barnes could provide the support Durant would need to make his impact felt.

But where would the Raptors stand in terms of dogs and depth?

If the standard is what the Pacers and Thunder can put on the floor, you’d have to say not particularly well.

Among the Raptors’ youngsters, there’s reason to be optimistic that the likes of Jamal Shead, Gradey Dick, Jonathan Mogbo, Ja’Kobe Walters and Jamison Battle  (we’re presuming the Raptors ninth overall pick in the upcoming draft would be part of any trade) showing signs of being the kind of players who could populate the bottom half of a playoff rotation, but only at some point in the future. Individually and collectively, they each have holes in their games that would need filling for that to happen, and there’s no guarantee of that happening, and certainly not by next season.

The Raptors were certainly deeper last season and project to be again this coming year, but that’s before excluding anyone who gets wrapped up in whatever trade package it would take to hypothetically land Durant.

Per league sources, the Suns want both good players and a package of picks as the internal expectation is that they will be competitive next season.

Consider too that the Orlando Magic — a considerably better team than the Raptors the past two seasons — made a significant move Sunday to acquire 26-year-old shooting guard Desmond Bane from the Memphis Grizzlies. A deal that required the Magic to give up a two-time NBA champion and high-end 3-and-D player in Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, a rotation-level guard in Cole Anthony and rights to four future first-round draft picks.

The Eastern Conference offers a path to being competitive sooner rather than later – the upstart Pacers, who won just 35 games two seasons ago, are suddenly everyone’s hope and example. But it’s not as simple as adding a single star.

And even when the Raptors did it with Leonard, they were already a 59-win team and still had to make another deal for Marc Gasol. These Raptors are not that.

The Thunder, with an average age of 24.15, are the youngest team in the NBA and would be the youngest team to win the Finals since the 1977 Portland Trail Blazers won with a roster that averaged 25.03.  The Pacers are not far off, with an average age of 25.02.

And yet each crew has some miles on it, and most importantly, miles travelled together.

Gilgeous-Alexander was talking specifically about his third-year teammates Williams and Chet Holmgren when he was asked about the strides they’d made over the past two playoff funs, but his words ring true for the Thunder as a whole as they try to translate phenomenal regular-season success (an NBA-best 125 wins the past two seasons combined) into a championship.

“I think what they have done a really good job of is just getting better. I think through the two series last year, through the whole season and then the three series leading up to this one, they just used every opportunity to get better,” Gilgeous-Alexander said on Sunday.

“Because they focused on that and because that’s what they have taken care of, they have been ready for the opportunity (and) the moment. So I think that above all, they have really hammered home as long as you — you’re going to go through experiences and you’re going to fail and you’re going to succeed in some, but figuring out how to learn and get better through them is what’s really going to help you ultimately get to where you want to get to.”

Haliburton, the Pacers’ still-growing fifth-year star, voiced a similar sentiment about his teammates, having ridden with them to the Eastern Conference Finals last season and now two wins away from a championship this year.

“There’s no surprises, to be honest with you,” he said when I asked him about how he thought his young team was handling the heat of their first Finals together and coming off a tough loss in Game 4 at home. “I know our group very well. I’m proud of our resilience. We’ve had to find different ways to win for the last two, three months. So, proud of that. We’ll just continue to respond … It’s the best part about playoff series, is when you get the chance to respond.

“I look forward to doing that with this group, coming out and competing.”

Both teams can come into the biggest game of their seasons – in many cases, their careers — with the confidence earned through shared experience and the knowledge that they have the “Three Ds” well covered.

It’s worth considering if indeed the Raptors were to pursue KD — are they really one ageing, albeit still great, star away from being a team that contends with either of the teams playing in Game 5 (on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+) Monday night?

Championships are not won by dudes alone. These Finals are proving that, regardless of which team comes out on top.