Thursday, June 18, 2015

NBA Finals (Final)

Going into the Warrior-Cav series, I saw the matchup through two separate prisms: what Lebron endured with the Heat against the Spurs last year and how the Warriors handled the Rockets in the previous round. Turns out it was a replay of the Warrors-Grizzlies match in the 2nd round: Warriors shaky for the first three games, then in overdrive for the next three games.

There was no way the Cavs were gonna win this series. In basketball having the best player is a hell of an advantage but even that gets neutralized over time: the advantage is in the efficiency that one all-world dude can bring but when he has to do EVERYTHING then the numbers suffer and cracks appear. James Harden carried the Rockets to the Conference Finals by himself but the Warriors were just too deep; ditto for Lebron carrying the Cavs.

Iguodala as MVP is a fine choice, I reckon. Not sure how Curry got zero votes and personally I would've gone with Lebron. But Lebron was lackluster in game 6 (I'll say it: that was the quietest 32/15/9 you'll ever see) and Iguodala definitely had an impact on the series (though you could say the same for Draymond, Klay and Livingston too). 

Going forward the Cavs look to integrate Love and Kyrie, re-up Tristan and Mozgov (and move on from Smith, Shumpert and Dellavedova) and come back stronger next year. They'll be over the cap (not my problem) and I can't help wondering who the coach will be (Mark Jackson? John Calipari? David Blatt? (heh heh, jk)) but the Cavs should dominate the East next year (though the Heat, Pacers, Celtics and Wizards all look interesting). 

The Warriors seem to be in dynasty mode but I'm not so sure. They have to get rid of David Lee, they might have to get rid of Maurice Speights too and they might still want to move Iguodala after that. The team will still be really good but they had amazing depth (and health) this year and when that starts to slip, injuries creep in, losing streaks start to happen--I'm not saying its all over for the Warriors, but I don't see how they could be this good again next year. (Well, this Warrior team is one of the single best teams I ever saw, can't imagine anybody being that good next year) 

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