By Noah Gould
The NBA finals will start on June 4th even if all the conference finals games are done early. What this will leave us with is an extended period of time where the nation will be discussing the finals to be. This is Lebron’s fifth consecutive year in the finals. That is the most by any player since the 1960s. Similar to last season, Lebron, despite being the best player in the league, will be a big underdog. The Cavs don’t have much going for them besides Lebron. Kyrie might still not be 100% by the time the finals start but his extended rest will help. To beat the Warrior Kyrie would need not only to be healthy, but to play at his best.
The Warriors are one of the best teams in the history of the NBA. Their 67-15 regular season was only 3 wins short of the record. They also aren’t that far off from the 2001 Lakers’ record 16-1 postseason. Their point differential is one of the best of all time. Steph Curry won the league MVP this year despite not playing in 17 4th quarters because they were blow outs. The Warriors still aren’t getting the proper respect as one of the greatest teams of all time simply because they haven’t won a championship and because they don’t have players considered to be top all time guys.
Steph Curry is great. He may very well be considered the best shooter of all time and of course he is the league MVP. The problem is that he isn’t very good at defense and he had only had two great seasons in his entire career. While it seems like Kobe and Lebron have made every all star game since they were 12 years old Steph has only made 2. He has only entered the playoffs as a legit championship contender once, and he has only been 1st team all NBA once.
The problem is people are losing sight of what the actual conversation is. This years’ Warriors team is the best single season team of all time. The fact that in their recent history they have never seriously contended for a title doesn’t matter. The thing that makes this Warriors team special is the fact they have an insane group of five players, and they have no holes on their bench. No other team in history has had the MVP, the best player in the league at guarding 1-5, a center who is one of the best rim protectors in the league, a superstar scorer at shooting guard who by the way isn’t bad at defense, and a great perimeter defender who can run the offense off the bench.
