Have the Golden State Warriors’ dominance and big signing taken the fun out of the NBA?
This has surely been a drama filled offseason and the NBA season is starting quite soon. But one move made all other moves irrelevant, and no I am not talking about Rose to New York.
Are we about to witness one of the most mundane scripted seasons ever? Not talking excitement and thrill as this season will be one of the most fun to watch. However, most of these games will carry little to no weight in picking who will hoist a championship trophy come June 2017. Did Kevin Durant’s signing to the Warriors ruin any sense of competitive balance in the West; in the NBA? I imagine the rest of the NBA, not named Lebron or Popovich, to be completely demoralized from any championship aspirations for next season.
All of this is barring injury of course.
It is never wise to seal the fate of something with a foregone conclusion, however in basketball we have learned over the course of 7 years that if your name is not Lebron James, you will likely not be coming out of the East. Lebron has had hiccups of course, but at the end of the day, the story becomes everyone proving themselves as good enough to dethrone the king.
The Pacers and Raptors had good runs at Lebron, however, nobody realistically thought they would see someone not named LBJ in the finals. My favorite question for anyone talking about the balance in the Eastern Conference is “How many top 10 players are in the East?” Seriously. Who has a legitimate chance of dethroning Lebron. Part of the reason I wanted to see Kevin Durant stay in OKC or leave for Boston. Balance.
In the last 4 NBA finals, we have seen two rematches against Lebron James- Spurs and Lebron James-Warriors. I have no evidence suggesting that their will not be third-fourth straight matchup with Lebron-Warriors over the next TWO seasons as it looks like a foregone conclusion. My arguments on basketball are so narrow now.
“Who you got winning the finals, Warriors or Cavs”
“The season hasn’t even started yet.”
We are talking as if the finals are next week and the Warriors and Cavs already have 12 wins in the playoffs and are ready to square off.
I mean in most seasons, D Rose and Noah to the Knicks would be something that means something; something that could maybe shake the East up. But it does not.
D Wade and Rondo to the Bulls to join Jimmy Butler narrative would have carried some weight had it not happened this year.
Teague to the Pacers.
Al Horford to the Celtics.
The league has become a matter of “are you good enough to beat the Cavs or the Warriors”, and because the talent displacement from the Cavs and Warriors and the rest of the league has become so big, otherwise blockbuster moves have become little to insignificant.
Even Barkley when he was on Arizona Sports 98.7 weighed in on it during last season
"“People think us old guys hate when we talk about it. It has nothing to do with the Warriors’ greatness, LeBron’s greatness. But I’ve never seen the NBA as bad as it is, and I’ve been sayingMandatory Credit: Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sportsit the last three or four years. We’ve got too many young players coming out of college that don’t know how to play. It’s frustrating for me because I want to see competitive basketball.“We took a survey on our crew … How many actual NBA teams would you buy season tickets for? Four in the west and Cleveland obviously in the east. That’s not good for our league.”"
The West was the last hope as it had a wildcard; a sense of looming anxiety and excitement that something unexpected could happen. There was actual contention; actual friction and clawing amongst four teams. Even this past season with the Warriors winning 73 games was not set in stone and although everyone likely had the Warriors in the finals, there was always a what “if”. What if the Thunder figure it out ?
Even the Spurs were having a historically great season for some fans to lean on. We could not wait to see Warriors-Spurs or Warriors-Thunder in the playoffs because that was our last hope. That was the competitive matchup worth watching. I mean unless your a fan, who doesn’t love an upset? From a competitive standpoint, even last year the most anticipated matchup was the finals rematch and the Warriors injury troubles Draymonds antics added a little drama to the story.
As a die hard basketball fan I like to see as much basketball as possible; I like uncertainty and competitiveness and not have to wait through a foregone conclusion from the start.
This will certainly be one of the most exciting seasons of all-time. I mean, how often to do you get to see the best regular season team in NBA History add a top 3 player in the universe to an already dominant core. With all the moves that happened this NBA offseason I am surely excited to see all of it, from the Knicks to the Heat, Celtics, and Bulls. But, this only be fun, as none of these “non-Durant” moves shaped the NBA finals picture in the slightest.
The story of the decade would be if Westbrook could somehow carry his Thunder to thump Durant and the new look Warriors, but come on now. That is surely unlikely.
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Granted, we have to watch the first new look Warriors game before we can set anything in stone. So with all that said, I may be wrong. Maybe we’re in for a dramatic competitive season filled with uncertainty. Maybe we are in for a huge plot twist.
Maybe the new look Knicks will exceed expectations and make a finals run.
Or the Chicago trio will dethrone Lebron and the Cavs.
Maybe Derozan’s new deal was all that was needed to put the Raptors over the hump.
Oh yeah, and let us not forget our 36 year old Spaniard joining the Spurs in the wake of Tim Duncans departure.
Stay tuned.