You are right about the Warriors. They assembled the team last year that had the best regular season record of all time through the draft. Green in the second round in particular was a huge get. But again, they needed a quirky cap situation to add a top 5 player better than anyone they drafted to assemble the team they are currently fielding.
The Cavs though? No way are the built via the draft. They got Irving via the draft. They signed James as a free agent (yes they drafted him a decade+ ago) and they traded for Love (title aside I think this trade was a mistake and that Wiggins on the Cavs would be better than Love). And the Cavs are only a thing because the playoffs are not seeded 1-16. The East is dogshit. If the playoffs were seeded 1-16, no way in hell are we looking at Cavs-Warriors round 3 this year and probably again the next 2 years at least. If the Cavs were in the West, James wouldn’t have his Finals appearance streak.
The bottomline is, who is going to knock the Warriors off? By all accounts they are going to be able to keep Durant and Curry. Curry will get a max deal this off season and Durant will opt out, according to reports, and resign, and then get a max deal the next year and Klay and Green are already under contract. Who is beating the Warriors in the next 2 years? Klay is UFA after the 2018-19 season but honestly, the Warriors with Durant, Curry and Green will still be the team to beat.
I think a healthy Spurs team can beat the Warriors but they likely have to replace Ginobili in 17-18. The injury to Kawhi Leonard deprived us of some great basketball.
On any given night? Sure. In a seven game series? That I just don’t see happening (and I take nothing away from the Spurs by saying that, they are very good).
I was reflecting on the Spurs Finals win in 2014 where they came back with a plan to defeat the Heat’s aggressive trapping defense. Somehow I don’t see Ty Lue coming up with a strategy to beat the Warriors.
The Heat were also tired after their 4th Finals appearance. With so many good scorers, the Warriors have the luxury to rest. I don’t think they’ll be worn out next year, and it’s irrelevant since the Cavs would be just as tired, to say nothing of LeBron.
The Warriors had the luxury of little injury time lost this year, though. They won’t break down, but they’re due for some hardship that way sooner or later in a season.
Only 3 teams suffered less man/games lost than GS and those teams were The Suns, The Thunder and The Rockets. So yeah, they definitely had it easier than most on the injury front. Some of that may be a result of just how good they are. Whoopin people give you the luxury of spreading around game time, which keeps your players fresher and thus less likely to get injured.
Maybe a group of stars will team up for a year taking serious pay cuts to try to break the lock. Sacrifice to make a Big 5 within the confines of the CBA.
It’ll be interesting to see what immovable object halts the unstoppable force years from now or whatever.
Well sure but that’s 5+ years away. Everyone will already be bored out of their minds by then. I’m trying to brainstorm what might change in the meantime.
We could even get a Big 5 this summer. If Golden State renounces all their cap holds except Steph ($18M) they will have $16M in cap space. That might be enough for a desperate star to take a one year deal.
Looking at the list of free agents this year, I don’t see any likely candidates. Maybe Chris Paul? Too much overlap and he probably wants one last megadeal.
We don’t really have to, Durant already did it this past year. LeBron’s super team yawned their way through their conference but are utterly outmatched and stand a good chance of getting swept on Friday.
GSW is stacked to the point that adding even more superstars won’t really change much. You can’t get much more dominant than not losing a single game in the postseason.
The solution now is to get the Greek Freak and Anthony Davis on the Cavs so we can go ahead and shut down the rest of the league until it’s time for the inevitable GSW/Cavs rematch. :) Perhaps Chris Paul can join as well and be the playmaker that LeBron has been asking for!
Yeah. I am currently a Spurs fan. I love Leonard. He is an amazing player who has gotten objectively better each year. And I don’t think he has peaked. A healthy Leonard would have given us a 6-7 game WCF this year, but the Warriors are still winning that series. Next year? Don’t see that changing. The Warriors are going to return their core. And its hard to see how the Spurs get a better roster aside from organic improvements from Leonard and Murray.
They are really hamstrung with a terrible Tony Parker contract in its last year. Gasol has a player option that he will 100% exercise, that is brutal for their cap. Aldridge is on a max deal. In order to get better via trades or FA, they have to move at least one of Parker, Gasol or Aldridge and probably would need to lose Danny Green as well. San Antonio isn’t moving Parker. No one would take him, and it would be very un-Spurs like to even shop him. They could possibly move Gasol or Aldridge…but would that even matter? Get Paul on a max deal and sacrifice depth to do it for a dude who is on the back end of his career? And still no guarantee you are gonna get past the Warriors. I think the Spurs will stand pat. They will lose Mills. They can probably retain Simmons. Ginobli will be back if we wants to. But the Warriors are still an incredible super team and the Spurs aren’t going to beat them in the playoffs barring injury.
