You're right.

CP3 to the Spurs could set up an epic WCF.

Otherwise..... the NBA will be EXTREMELY boring next season unless the warriors sustain key injuries or other teams make some crazy unforeseen moves to get a lot better.

GatorAg03 said:

---

This game was over when the Cavs big adjustment was to give minutes to Channing Frye. There are no answers. The Cavs with 3 all stars just don't have the horses to keep up.

Lebron plays great, has a triple double, and it is still not even a ballgame.

I really hope Chris Paul signs with the Spurs or else next season will be extremely boring if GSW stays healthy. The Cavs aren't even close.

---

The analytics had Warriors as a 90%+ favorite before this series started because of the Cavs below average defensive play for much of year, including one of the worst transition defenses in NBA. The weak East made some believe that maybe they had 'flipped the switch' on defense but uh...no...Warriors are eating them alive.

GatorAg03 said:

---

This game was over when the Cavs big adjustment was to give minutes to Channing Frye. There are no answers. The Cavs with 3 all stars just don't have the horses to keep up.

Lebron plays great, has a triple double, and it is still not even a ballgame.

I really hope Chris Paul signs with the Spurs or else next season will be extremely boring if GSW stays healthy. The Cavs aren't even close.

---

Paul will have to walk away from 40-50 million to go to Spurs. Which seems to have many skeptical. I listened to Jalen Rose opine on his ESPN podcast just a couple of days ago that he thinks there is almost no chance Paul makes that move. That is a huge amount cash to give up to change your basketball jersey.

Pumpkinhead said:

---

Good Aggie Hunting said:

---

KD is inhuman!

---

That was a nasty block of Love's shot, and then durant goes down and scores.

Durant and Curry both playing MVP quality basketball and Klay Thompson shooting like Klay Thompson again means game over for Cavs. They got zero chance.

LeBron has 29 points, 13 assists, 10 rebounds and doesn't matter. His team is getting blown off the court.

---

He fouled him the whole post up though, double forearms to the back

Cavs were down 2-0 last year of course too. If all the following things happen, they might still have a chance:

A) Green gets suspended for a game
b) curry tweaks his knee and isn't 100%
C) Durant gets traded off team for Harrison Barnes
D) Irving has a couple 40+ scoring games
e) LeBron averages like 38 points, 10 assists, and 12 rebounds the rest of way.

I don't think it is quite that much when you look at the no state tax and the extra money from the year that Paul could play elsewhere that has to be factored in. It's still a ton of money to pass on, but I don't think it is quite as much as some of the figures thrown around. I would love to see someone do the actual math. Spurs could even do a KD like contract where Paul has an option year after year 1 where he can opt out and then re-sign a max 4 year deal once TP and Gasol are off the books. I hope Spurs don't do a 5 year max deal like this, but all I'm saying is there are ways to get creative.

Paul is a competitor and knows he has but a few prime years left. The NBA perhaps more an any sport gauges its superstars on titles as Jordan set that bar very high. His legacy will take a huge hit if he never makes it out of the second round which is his destiny if he re-signs with the Clips.

I think it's a coin flip on if he signs with the Spurs.

Ozzy Osbourne said:

---

I'm not sure CP3 on the Spurs could beat a healthy GSW.

---

I agree that GSW would still be the favorites but it is probably the most competitive a team can realistically get this offseason.

94chem said:

---

Lebron will probably sign with Golden State.

---

Very funny troll

GatorAg03 said:

---

I don't think it is quite that much when you look at the no state tax and the extra money from the year that Paul could play elsewhere that has to be factored in. It's still a ton of money to pass on, but I don't think it is quite as much as some of the figures thrown around. I would love to see someone do the actual math. Spurs could even do a KD like contract where Paul has an option year after year 1 where he can opt out and then re-sign a max 4 year deal once TP and Gasol are off the books. I hope Spurs don't do a 5 year max deal like this, but all I'm saying is there are ways to get creative.

Paul is a competitor and knows he has but a few prime years left. The NBA perhaps more an any sport gauges its superstars on titles as Jordan set that bar very high. His legacy will take a huge hit if he never makes it out of the second round which is his destiny if he re-signs with the Clips.

I think it's a coin flip on if he signs with the Spurs.

---

You're right clippers aren't going to do anything meaningful and griffin probably leaves to another team. I bet they blow that thing up.

My other wild scenario is Lebron going to the Spurs after losing to the Warriors yet again next year. He has shown he likes Super teams and supposedly likes Pop. Plus he would be getting up there in age and Pop extends careers unlike Lue letting him play more minutes than anyone in regular season. Plus the Spurs could have the cap space.

Lebron winning as a star on 3 different teams could differentiate his legacy to somewhat make up for all the finals losses he will have. Especially if he helped take down the Warriors dynasty.

As I posted before I don't even know If putting Lebron on the Spurs makes them the favorites or good enough to win. The warriors are just set up so perfectly for today's NBA game with their outside shooting and small ball dominance. No matter what teams do, it will be tough to compete with a healthy warriors team.

The only glimmer of hoped or the rest of the NBA (and I'm certainly not wishing for it) is for injuries to derail things as both KD and Curry have had past issues,

GatorAg03 said:

---

My other wild scenario is Lebron going to the Spurs after losing to the Warriors yet again next year. He has shown he likes Super teams and supposedly likes Pop. Plus he would be getting up there in age and Pop extends careers unlike Lue letting him play more minutes than anyone in regular season. Plus the Spurs could have the cap space.

Lebron winning as a star on 3 different teams could differentiate his legacy to somewhat make up for all the finals losses he will have. Especially if he helped take down the Warriors dynasty.

As I posted before I don't even know If putting Lebron on the Spurs makes them the favorites or good enough to win. The warriors are just set up so perfectly for today's NBA game with their outside shooting and small ball dominance. No matter what teams do, it will be tough to compete with a healthy warriors team.

The only glimmer of hoped or the rest of the NBA (and I'm certainly not wishing for it) is for injuries to derail things as both KD and Curry have had past issues,

---

'

I originally thought Warriors in 6, but I'm considering revising to 5. I don't think they'll sweep Cleveland, but they just have a gear the Cavs can't match.

grapespda2525 said:

---

Draymond is a classless cry baby. You're up 15 just shut up and play you ******ed moron. Hate that guy worst than any other professional athlete. I wish he would get an injury so that I don't have to see him anymore.

---

You're a bigger crybaby.

Surprised no one had anything to say about that trash three at the end of the game...however, it is quite possible no one was watching at that point

GatorAg03 said:

---

My other wild scenario is Lebron going to the Spurs after losing to the Warriors yet again next year. He has shown he likes Super teams and supposedly likes Pop. Plus he would be getting up there in age and Pop extends careers unlike Lue letting him play more minutes than anyone in regular season. Plus the Spurs could have the cap space.

Lebron winning as a star on 3 different teams could differentiate his legacy to somewhat make up for all the finals losses he will have. Especially if he helped take down the Warriors dynasty.

As I posted before I don't even know If putting Lebron on the Spurs makes them the favorites or good enough to win. The warriors are just set up so perfectly for today's NBA game with their outside shooting and small ball dominance. No matter what teams do, it will be tough to compete with a healthy warriors team.

The only glimmer of hoped or the rest of the NBA (and I'm certainly not wishing for it) is for injuries to derail things as both KD and Curry have had past issues,

---

Yep. If he wants to win another title, I'm afraid he either has to go to San Antonio or lure another big time star to Cleveland.

Chris Paul, Simmons?, Leonard, Lebron, Aldridge?

As stacked as that roster is, even they wouldn't be huge favorites over GSW. It's pretty wild how big an advantage GSW has built.

The other thing that is overlooked is the new max structure for contracts was put in to prevent anymore super teams. See CP3 and the amount of money and extra year he will have to pass on to go to the Spurs. What this has basically done though is grandfathered in Golden State's super team, while making a new super team very tough to create. GSW has a huge advantage in the ability to keep their squad together over the next few years, while everyone else has a big obstacle in creating their own competing super team.

Nobody will care in a decade about a salary cap rule but there definitely should be an asterisk on their dynasty if they real off 2 or 3 more titles while nobody else can build a competing super team.

Hopefully at least one superstar says screw the money and makes a rival team competitive.

At least last season LeBron James was able to bring that NBA championship home to the suffering Cleveland sports fanbase. You definitely get the feeling that Golden State may very well gobble up all of the remaining NBA titles during these last 2-3 years of the tail-end of his prime.

Kawhi Leonard is only 25 years old so he still has some time to ride out the current Golden State run even if it lasts another few years.

GatorAg03 said:

---

The other thing that is overlooked is the new max structure for contracts was put in to prevent anymore super teams. See CP3 and the amount of money and extra year he will have to pass on to go to the Spurs. What this has basically done though is grandfathered in Golden State's super team, while making a new super team very tough to create. GSW has a huge advantage in the ability to keep their squad together over the next few years, while everyone else has a big obstacle in creating their own competing super team.

---

Yeah, this is the irony of the current situation. The NBA is trying to put things in place to give superstars more incentive to stay with their current teams (i.e., discourage the 'super team' thing). But Golden State already has their super teams in place so anything that the NBA does right now in that regard actually helps Golden State.

Definitely if you are not a Golden State fan then the frustration is totally understandable, but the Warriors organization also deserves a lot of credit. They were lucky with the cap spike happening right as Durant became available, but they also made a lot of very smart drafts and trades to build that 73-win team that seduced Durant in the first place.

They drafted Curry themselves and developed him. They drafted Klay Thompson themselves. They drafted Draymond Green themselves with a second round draft pick. They made a smart trade for an All-Star quality guy in Iguodola. They hired Steve Kerr who helped put in a system that perfectly fit their players. They play with great effort on both ends of the court.

And then they got lucky with the cap spike with Durant to go merely from arguably the best team in the NBA to absolutely unfair. But even before Durant, they won an NBA title in 2015 and won 73 games last year with a home-grown roster, making smart draft picks and trades. And they still had to actually sell Kevin Durant to come to Golden State, making sure they said all the right things and Curry/Thompson/Green all had to be totally on board. There were several other teams trying to grab Durant.

This year, they patched up their center situation just well enough, after having to jettison most of their bigs like Bogut, Speights, etc. using guys with mediocre to 'almost out of the NBA' careers like ZaZa and McGee....that it didn't matter. A guy like McGee has even had his career somewhat revitalized. And a two-time MVP star like Curry seemed to welcome Durant onto the team with open arms, you don't get the sense at all that there was any major ego issues that ever had a significant risk of derailing them.

They are cocky as hell, Green is VERY unlikeable if he isn't playing for your team, but the Warriors are also an extremely well run organization right now.

No one is going to put an asterisk next to their potential dynasty because they went out and signed KD.

AggieSportsGuy said:

---

No one is going to put an asterisk next to their potential dynasty because they went out and signed KD.

---

This.

I understand what you're saying, but my point is what would you have done if you were in the Warriors' shoes?

If that is what you're expecting to happen, I'm not sure it will. The layman fan usually loves a dominant team it can root for and follow, and the NBA's merchandise revenue and attendance has been increasing. It's becoming the second most popular sport in the world.

I really feel like if this were the Spurs, Rockets, or Mavs, the fans of those teams would be having a huge party right now and not complaining about it and they wouldn't care what other fans thought.

I just think there's some bitter fans of contenders (not Mavs lol) in the West that are pissed they won't be winning much the next few years. I get it because it must feel deflating as a fan, I just think if the roles were reversed those fans wouldn't be saying it would be bad for the game.

I acknowledge that they have made some shrewd moves, they have developed their guys, and utilize them the right way. With that said, I must point out that the year this group won their only title it could not have been any easier. First of all, the Spurs had their number that year, but CP3 and Griffin played out of their minds and way over their heads to eliminate them. I think it was a fluke, but hey it happened. Every single opponent that golden state got to play that year was suffering from a major injury to a key contributor ( like I said this is not the warriors fault).

Fast forward to this year, the Spurs had a superior game plan in game one and were going to win until the clumsy, ugly looking oaf named Zaza made a play that was highly questionable and was dirty given his history. If Leonard was healthy, I think that would've been a 6 game series. GSW probably would've won, but I'd give SA a punchers chance. Especially because they would've had home court. My point is, I acknowledge how good the warriors are, but as a fan of an opposing team, it is extremely frustrating to see a team this good get the breaks on match ups, injuries, and they always seem to catch teams when they're down. The NBA is a crazy league. The Mavericks won 67 games one year and looked poised to win a title, but they ran into golden state the one team that could handle them. The Spurs were a #1 seed one year and lost to Memphis, a team that had their number. We have not seen GSW suffer from any bad luck. They appear to be a blessed team.

AggieSportsGuy,

In the grand grand scheme of things, you may be correct that the frustration non-Warrior NBA fans are feeling right now will ultimately "blow over". The game is pretty healthy by most traditional metrics. There's tons of marketable stars. The league has done a ton to enhance its presence internationally. TV ratings may be in jeopardy going forward for a variety of reasons (competitive balance being one of them), but they will probably be just fine this year.

Also, I don't mean to discredit the Warriors at all. They did a great job assembling their current roster via the draft and some shrewd moves. Steve Kerr did an amazing job executing his vision and integrating Thompson/Curry/Draymond into it. They took advantage of a nice break (the cap spike) and added another superstar to the mix. I'd be lying if I said I wouldn't sign KD in the same situation.

I think alot of the mass frustration comes down to KD's choice, which not only took the Warriors' superteam to another level above its main challengers (Spurs and Cavs), but also crippled the other team that had a chance to beat them (Thunder). Even as a Thunder fan, I get that KD left for other reasons than to latch onto a team that could get him a ring. His on-court style never really meshed with Russ, he wanted to try something new. and OKC isn't a great city for a perspective-seeking single guy in his late 20s.

Like you've pointed out, superteams can be a good thing because of their polarization. Everyone wants to watch to see them win or lose. The 90s Bulls and the 00s Lakers are the two most polarizing teams from recent years that come to mind. I don't think anyone would make the case that either of those two teams were bad for the league. However, my tune might be a little different in the following scenarios:

1) Bulls defeat Magic in 1996 conf finals. Shaq signs with the Bulls. Bulls go on to destroy the league the next 4-5 years.
2) Lakers defeat Spurs in 2001 conf finals. Duncan signs with Lakers. Lakers go on to destroy the league the next 4-5 years.

Neither of those situations is a perfect parallel but I try to contemplate them anyway to gauge my frustrations in a similar situation and yea, I'd roll my eyes a little bit if the Bulls + Shaq or the Lakers + Duncan had reeled off noncompetitive championships.

Anyways, I suppose this is one of those issues where everyone is entitled to their opinion. Again, you might be right that some of the frustration is partisan and exaggerated at the moment. But I can also see another case where this does damage do the NBA brand and respectable analysts *asterisk* this Warriors run. We shall see.

And all this assumes that the Cavs don't mount a comeback in this series. Like another poster pointed out, I think the Warriors "legitimacy" (for lack of a better word) in the eyes of the masses would be enhanced if they win in 6 instead of a sweep. But given the dynamics of this series relative to last year, it's hard for me to foresee the Cavs threatening the Warriors. I've been wrong before though!

Thanks for a well-rounded response.

k20dub said:

---

At this point, I just want GS to sweep em. Make the NBA lose out on ratings for more games and further piss off the fans.

---

I don't know if people realize this, but the big cap spike from the new television deal that made it feasible for Golden State to make room to sign Kevin Durant, the NBA itself was against that spike happening and wanted to phase in the increased cap over a period of years. But the players union voted against that idea and wanted all the money available to the players as soon as possible.

Guys who voted for the cap spike included LeBron and lots of other players around the league who don't play for the Warriors.

It is understandable because the players were looking out for themselves including guys near the end of their careers who wanted to make as much money as possible before their career ended.

This is by far the least I have watched the NBA playoffs that I can remember. I think overall the ratings have been fine so maybe the NBA doesn't care. I'll be curious if the ratings stay good next year assuming GSW finishes off the sweep.

Durant's argument that he only affected "one team" is only a half truth. It's not just that he took out one contender, it is that he created a juggernaut powerful enough to dismiss multiple contenders. GSW is a dominant enough team that even very good teams like SAS or HOU don't have a realistic chance. Short of injuries or ego, I don't see how GSW fades until 2020.

jeffdjohnson said:

---

This is by far the least I have watched the NBA playoffs that I can remember. I think overall the ratings have been fine so maybe the NBA doesn't care. I'll be curious if the ratings stay good next year assuming GSW finishes off the sweep.

Durant's argument that he only affected "one team" is only a half truth. It's not just that he took out one contender, it is that he created a juggernaut powerful enough to dismiss multiple contenders. GSW is a dominant enough team that even very good teams like SAS or HOU don't have a realistic chance. Short of injuries or ego, I don't see how GSW fades until 2020.

---

I think we can at least all agree that the 'competitive imbalance' in the Eastern Conference (technically half of the NBA) has zero to do with Durant's decision. The Eastern Conference Finals were just as 'meh' this season as the West...and the Cavs skated through the East playoffs 12-1 before hitting reality with the Warriors. The last 7 years the representative from the East in the NBA Finals has been LeBron and whatever uniform he happens to be wearing that season.