The way I see it the Warriors need to redeem themselves. KD joined a team that won a championship last year and their win was as expected. The way I see it if the Cavs win two or three games the Warriors are underperforming.
BTW I hear this morning that the Rockets are thinking about entering the LeBron James sweepstakes. With their payroll that tells you who they think the MVP is.
The league should really do something about this. Incompetent front offices can't be helped(kings, suns, knicks, etc). But the top half of the league should be more competitive overall.
To answer the OP - No, it will be a 4-0 sweep. The games won't even be competitive.
On Houston after Lebron - It is the job of Lebron's agent to tell the world that every team is after his client. Tillman Fertitta is no fool. He's not going to over pay. Putting Harden and James together would not work. But a lot of the Rockets current team becomes free agent this year so there will be some changes.
^ what are you a socialist - I say let the best teams be the best teams - trying to create/force parity is usually achieved by making the good teams weaker not necessarily making the bad teams good - parity usually leads to mediocrity and why I don't like salary caps - I rather see a couple of super-trams go at it than a bunch of mediocre teams that are "even"
Well, the Eastern conference should be more competitive. Their records are even an indication of how good they are, if anything their records indicate that they are worse, because they play more JV teams and the west plays more Varsity. Would the Cavs had even made the playoffs in the West this season? Maybe an 8th or 7th seed. Idk.
The finals will probably be a lot like last year --- no more than 5 games.
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I'm a bit disappointed to see that you're one of those kinds of people that use that kind of reasoning to spin a narrative. I might have given you more credit that you deserved
I will say the Cavaliers will be lucky to win 2 games
Yea it will be a sweep. The NBA needed either Lebron or the Warriors in the finals for rating purposes.
The NBA is trying to fix this "top heavy" mess by letting teams offer super max deals to their players that they have Bird Rights to. See Kwai Leonard from the Spurs... I think the NBA is the only league of the 4 major sports in where you can really predict who will be in the finals & even the final 4. I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing.
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I don't think we watched the same games because it sounds like you're insinuating that the referees fixed both the Eastern and Western Conference Finals
With regard to being able to predict the participants in the playoff semis and finals, it’s simple math, with only 5 players on the floor at a time, the superstars have an outsized effect on the results for any given game. I don’t think in any other team sport one or two players can have the effect on an individual game.
Look how much trouble GS had with Houston. If Chris Paul was healthy there was at least a possibility they could instead be in the finals.
The East has improved greatly this year, is it better than the West? Hell no, but I bet in a best of 7 Boston, Philly and Indiana could have taken down San Antonio, NO and the Jazz.
Here’s what I see, if GS plays like they did throughout the Houston series Cleveland wins 2 games, maybe gets lucky and wins 3. If GS plays like they did the 2nd half of game 7 last night, Cleveland will be lucky to win more than 1.
Take into note, there is disfunction on that GS team, you could see the egos during the trophy celebration, when they announced the presentation and handed the trophy to KD first like it was “his” team. you should have seen the look on Curry and Klays face.
The only saving grace for Cleveland is LeBron and 3/4 of GS have the “been there done that” attitude, for the Cavs some of those guys gotta figure this is likely their only trip to the finals, so will they arise to the occasion? Or no matter what they do is GS just too stacked and talented?
Next will be does LeBron stay? I say if they get him 1 stud, like a Kwalhi or Damian Lillard he stays.
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I think the chances of Kawhi going to a team like Philadelphia are far greater than the Cavaliers. Lillard is pretty much untouchable. He's on a great contract until 2020-2021. You would essentially have to gut your whole team in order to get Lillard. I'm still in the camp that LeBron goes to a team like Philadelphia than stay with the Cavaliers. Good chance he stays in Cleveland, though. There's a narrative going around in the media that "LeBron cannot leave his hometown team twice"
I didn't watch the trophy celebration so that is interesting to hear about
Absolutely, over all these playoffs have been a big disappointment. The shooting has been dreadful and the East is brutally bad. Its reaching the point they just need to do 1-16 seeding instead of the conference playoff seeding
If anything Game 6 in Cleveland the refs ( one actually) was either so incompetent or had something up his sleeve to throw the series the other direction. I sat a few rows back from the court and shit you never see on TV or in my normal seats you could see plainly--so could the fans who were screaming insults and threats at him by the 3rd Q and even the four Celtic fans near us were joking about it wasn't them who paid him off.......yes it was that obvious.
At the end of the regular season Philadelphia was the team on a mission. I fully expected them to take Boston out and Toronto to beat the Cavs ( shows how much I know)
I doubt LeBron goes anywhere.........unless you are from Northeast Ohio or are there often there is an incredible bond between him and Akron St Vincent's ( his high school) and his oldest is now at age to attend and to follow in his shoes. My bet is he stays in Cleveland unless the team really falls apart.
As for the series something I have been saying all along and came to fruition ( had to be right at least once) is Jeff Green brings speed and defense to the team more so than Love. I would not overlook the way he played in the last two games and especially in Game 7.
I would also point out the guy Golden State counts on slowing down LeBron is not healthy--Andre Iguodala.
Golden State should be favored by the odds makers but I wouldn't count on a sweep.
The Warriors have an achilles-heel, they are not physical and can be pushed around, their best 3-players are finesse-players that don't like driving to the basket and can become kinda one-dimensional on offense, and on defense they're not necessarily good one-on-one defenders (Klay is pretty good defender but he's gotten lit-up by Harden and Kyrie) - Iguodala gives them defense and physicality which IMO they need.
I see Tristen Thompson having an impact particularly on the boards, if they play him against GS's spread offense.
^I agree Papi, but they get banged around quite a bit and seem to pop back up as evidenced by that third period, when their three pointers started dropping,I think the key to beating the Warriors is some combination of intimidation, maybe taking some intentional fouls spread through out the game, banging them hard, to keep them from becoming too comfortable and making those three pointers.
Uh their defense was kinda asleep during that Houston series...
Being a lifelong (pre and post LeBron) Cavs fan I of course have little love for GS, but I’ve really grown fond of Draymond over the years. He’s cool, talks too much shit but that’s what kinda makes him so cool, because he can drill back it up at his age.
"their best 3-players are finesse-players that don't like driving to the basket and can become kinda one-dimensional on offense"
This is also, untrue, Papi_chulo. The Warriors are gifted with some of the best 3pt shooters, but that's not all they do. KD, Steph, and even Klay can get to the basket. They also have a very good mid range game, with those 3 being able to hit mid range shots as well as Livingston and West coming to mind, and others. Idk if Igoudala will play in the finals (I really hope so), but he also can get some dunks and other inside shots, as well as 3s when he gets hot.
Nina i think chulo just means the warriors dont have any physicality on their team. Not literally they cant drive into the paint. Case in point, last night. Capella and tucker were men amongst boys last night in the paint.
I think it's well-documented that the Warriors weakness is post defense. Great perimeter defending team but struggles with physicality. Look out for a team like Philadelphia (factoring in they add more perimeter shooting) to be a hard match up against the Warriors in the next couple seasons.
Tristan Thompson is an energy, hustle rebounder. He never added anything else to his game. I remember last series when he was out-rebounded by Curry by a simple box-out from one of the bigs. When you're getting overpaid to simply rebound, you best believe you grab every single rebound (yet he hasn't been doing that these past couple seasons
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