A lot of similarities between that Pistons team and this Raptor team.
Both faced a team from the state of California
B. Wallace/FVV -both went undrafted.
Billups/Lowry -traded multiple times early in their careers and then became 5 time all stars
R. Wallace/Gasol - both are big men acquired at the trade deadline.
Prince/OG -both were drafted with the 23rd overall pick 2 years before they played in the NBA finals.
Coaches Larry Brown/Nick Nurse - Larry Brown won his first NBA title in his first season as the Pistons head coach. Nick Nurse is in his first season as the Raptors head coach.
just as I predicted. did any of you tell ESPN
Much has been made of Toronto having zero lottery picks left on its roster, but they used their lottery picks in that asset-accumulation mode. Bargnani became
Jakob Poeltl (thanks, Knicks!), who became an important piece in the
Kawhi Leonard trade, along with DeRozan, a former No. 9 pick.
Jonas Valanciunas, the No. 5 pick in 2011, became the centerpiece of the
Marc Gasol deal -- Toronto's version of the 2004 Detroit Pistons' (perhaps the Raptors' closest analog as a convention-busting champion) Rasheed Wallace acquisition.
(Lowry in this analogy is Chauncey Billups -- the late-blooming star point guard. The Pistons even moved on from an accomplished coach in Rick Carlisle the year before their title run, and hired Larry Brown -- just as Toronto fired Casey and replaced him with Nick Nurse.)
Lowe: Can any NBA team possibly replicate what Toronto just pulled off?