Toronto Raptors, Milwaukee Bucks have a lot at stake in the ECF

Heading into the Eastern Conference Finals, there is clearly a lot at stake for both the Toronto Raptors and Milwaukee Bucks

After an amazing buzzer beater by Kawhi Leonard, his Toronto Raptors team will play the Milwaukee Bucks in the Eastern Conference Finals to determine who will represent the East in the NBA Finals.

For the Bucks, making it to the Finals would be huge since the team has not played in the Finals since 1974. The Bucks making the Finals could help keep Giannis Antetokounmpo in Milwaukee when his contract is up.

Especially considering there are already whispers about his potential departure to a bigger market – since two NBA agents and one former GM told Hoopshype they believe Antetokounmpo will leave Milwaukee once he becomes an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2021.

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For the Raptors, making it to the Finals would dispel the notion of the team being a great regular season team who cannot win the big games come playoff time. The notion of the Raptors not being able to win the big game could help Leonard leave to play for one of his hometown teams in Los Angeles.

The Raptors have won five of the last 6 Atlantic Division titles and this is only their second time playing in the Eastern Conference Finals in those years. So, it would be fair to call the Raptors an underachieving organization who cannot win the big postseason games despite playing in a city with some of the best fans in the league.

For the NBA, Toronto winning a championship would be huge for the league and merchandise sales in Canada where a whole country would likely tune in and buy Raptors championship merchandise instead of just a city.

For the Raptors to advance, the first thing they must do is help Leonard. Too many times against the Philadelphia 76ers it felt like the Raptors offense was to give the ball to Leonard and get out of the way, which almost cost them the series.

For the Bucks to win, they must make someone else beat them besides Leonard since we all know what he can do. Antetokounmpo must also take it to them every chance he gets and not settle for the long jump shots.

This series should be a hard fought series and will likely go 6 or 7 games, but most importantly, this series could help decide the future of Leonard and Antetokounmpo. Both the Raptors and Bucks would benefit from coming out on top.