Since the final buzzer of perhaps the greatest NBA Finals since Y2K, a lot has changed in my life. I got a new job, leaving the mundane and exhausting world of retail management for the desk job reality of the corporate atmosphere. Instead of cleaning bathrooms when I'm three people short, I now sit in a broken desk chair for eight hours a day. My wife has begun her first year as a second grade teacher in her ongoing experiment of a career I couldn't last five minutes in. We got our first dog together, which has been a roller coaster of a ride which is 35 percent her fault for being a neurotic and nervous pit bull rescue and 65 percent our fault for being over bearing and ridiculous. Ask me six months ago if I'd ever buy a five dollar pumpkin toy at a Shop Rite for a dog and I'd laugh at you. Ask me now and I'd tell you that they were unfortunately sold out, good thing I got an extra one last weekend. I've started a new blog, tried hanging Halloween lights outside our new home, watched McFarland, USA twice, grown a beard, watched the deterioration of the Baltimore Ravens franchise, caulked a living room and was summoned for jury duty in a county I don't reside in anymore. I'm hardly the Patrick that I was in June.
But do not worry, please, I can still tell you all of the words to the Full House theme song. And the Cavaliers and Warriors are still the historically odds on favorites to square off in the NBA Finals.
Never before have we seen the same NBA Finals three years in a row. Even with the eleven Bill Russell titles in the 60s, the dominating, 33 game win streak Lakers of the 70s, the Celtics Lakers Magic Bird rivalry of the 80s, the Jordan three peats of the 90s and the Rip Hamilton face masks of the 00s, across it all there has never been an NBA Finals trilogy. And not only is that the consensus favorite for 2017, we are on a runaway train barreling down the side of a mountain towards it. Anything short of a Cavs-Warriors Finals would be nothing short of a Darth Vader "I am your Father" shocker. Put Lando on that Finals telecast because it will truly belong with us among the clouds.
Golden State has, rightfully so, dominated the off-season headlines despite winning a championship. Anytime you close a season winning 73 regular season games and losing 9, rally back from a 3-1 Western Conference Finals to advance to the NBA Finals, blow a 3-1 NBA Finals lead to lose a shot at winning back to back championships by signing the second best basketball player in the world, you're going to turn some heads. Obviously, with the addition of Kevin Durant, the Warriors become the favorites to win it all, likely being picked by some Bleacher Report "reporters" to go not lose another game until 2019.
The Warriors will be good, really good. It's hard to ever pick a team to win over 70 games, seeing as how that has been done twice in over five decades of basketball existence. Golden State will win 60 games, a majority of which will look like some of these nonsensical preseason scrimmages where teams throw the kitchen sink at the Warriors on defense and get torched for a wide open three or a pull up 15 foot jumper. Cleveland showed us that with a few breaks and some diligent patience, you can defend Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, forcing someone like Andre Iguodala or Harrison Barnes to hit shots and beat you. That becomes near impossible when you add a scorer like KD into the mix. You can have your best defensive game and still leave the leagues best three point arsenal wide open and have nothing to say for it. Where this team will glaringly lack in half court defense, it will make up for in playing three of the top twenty five players in the league night in and night out. Even if you luck out and catch Curry on a night off after back to backs, good luck guarding Thompson and Durant. In some ways, it's like your annoying neighbor playing NBA 2k with force trades on. It's unfair.
This super team will need some time to sort out the kinks, just like Miami did. But Cleveland will no doubt have its collective foot off the gas through February, equating to an near equal amount of scratch your head losses and "sorry fans, LeBron is sitting this Nuggets game" nights. James just finished his eleventh season of at least 2700 minutes played, a toll that is unfathomable to the man like me who sometimes finds it excruciating to walk back into the kitchen for another peanut butter cup. Ty Lue knows he doesn't need the regular season. Hell, he knows he doesn't need the one seed. This could be a Lakers circa 2002 type season, when LA won 50 games and a three seed while courting two of the top ten greatest players to ever walk an NBA court. Think they coasted to the postseason? They also won a championship that season, something the Cavaliers do need this year.
So if they are our two colossal favorites, who has the best shot at messing the dream matchup up? Toronto has a good nucleus that danced for six games with Cleveland last time we saw them. A full year from Valucianos and a consistent postseason from Derozan could equate to an Eastern Conference championship for Canada's favorite stepchild. Boston is so well coached that Brad Steven's could call plays from his hotel room via Skype and they'd win 50 games. If Al Horford can gel with this young and well organized group of talent, the Celtics could return to the Finals for the first time since 2010. The Spurs are an annual contender as long as Popovich is coaching some sort of talent and Kawhi Leonard is manning the boards. The Clippers are a pencil in for a top three seed, but just as likely a pencil in for a first round exit. And so many people like the Jazz as the season dark horse that I'd go straight to Vegas and take the under on their win total, or just wait until the public pushes it to 65 and do it then.
One thing is for sure, this season is nothing short of exciting. There is no lack of storylines. I get heat from family and friends for adoring the NBA like I do. Besides the fact that I'm 5'6" and listen to Elton John, I also can't play a lick of basketball to save my life. But I also am tired of the complaints such as "They're all overpaid morons" and "No one plays defense" or "Anthony Davis looks like an ogre, not an MVP". Look, they're all pretty true. The collective bargaining agreement has created a world where Mike Conley is the highest paid NBA player. Defense is an after thought for 75 percent of the league. And Anthony Davis does like an ogre. But these aren't reasons to hate the league, they are reasons to love it! Offense is fun, Davis is a freak to watch and just because some guys are overpaid doesn't mean the overwhelming majority doesn't want to win a title so freaking bad. The heart of most NBA players is a rarity.
So ensuing is my NBA Preview where I will list my picks for the conference standings against the over unders and unleash my playoff predictions so we can revisit them in May and chat about how much of an underpaid moron I am. The blog post gets to be too long for one document so I broke it into three, Eastern Conference, Western Conference and Playoffs/Awards. In a perfect world, I'll post them all before Tuesday night. Realistically, I'll get halfway done writing the first post and come across The Fugitive on TV and abandon this altogether. Hell, at least I'm honest.
So sit back and pour yourself a Mimosa because this beds getting rocky. That's right, THE NBA IS BACK BITCHES!
No comments:
Post a Comment