The East is so weak anybody can win it, and then get blown out by the West. It really can be pretty much any team…except maybe the Sixers.
LeBron’s Cavs are the favorites but I don’t think it means much. It’s possible the Pacers really step up, in terms of pure talent I think they just might be the best East team, and if they actually play to their potential an entire year who knows, they can actually compete with the West to win a title. Paul George is almost there. Once he gets consistency I think he’s certainly good enough to beat LeBron.
LeBron is not going to turn a 33-49 team with a rookie coach into the EC favorites. Don’t be absurd.
Vegas is giving them 3-1 odds to win championship. Its like nobody actually watched Cavs games and know how bad they are. And that’s beside the fact Kyrie is an injury prone every season.
Even though the Spurs deserve a fuckton of credit. Let’s put things into perspective. Tim Duncan came into a fantastic situation. I don’t buy the whole “Spurs tanked” nonsence because David Robinson was going to miss that whole year, and Sean Elliot was injured as well. Take the two best players off of any team and they’re going to suck. Back to Tim Duncan; by the time it was time for him to become a free agent he won a championship, and he was on a great team. There was no way in hell he was leaving. Especially not before Robinson, whom he won two championships with, retired. Great player + success = no reason to leave. Things may have been different if the Spurs team were as bad as their record was when they drafted him.
Top picks go to bad teams, and it’s usually not the case that a team which was bad enough to get the first pick will be championship ready by the time it’s time for that star draft pick to go to free agency, therefore they seek better situations. The Spurs deserve a lot of credit for spotting talent and nourishing it and making them flourish is much easier when you’ve got an all time great coach and an all time great player, so the Spurs have the luxury of “doing things the right way” because the pieces that they are building around are damn good ones.
If Lebron wins a ring or two in Cleveland I’m thinking he doesn’t leave to go to Miami.
I wonder where that leaves OKC. Bad enough to get a bunch of top picks, and now those picks, especially Durant, are developing into top tier players. Does Durant get fed up and leave? Or does he stick with it and bank on winning a title with OKC one day?
Durant isn’t the type to have an hour long special to announce his decision or hype championships at a pep rally, but would OKC fans still shit on him of he left?
Yall are crazy, it’s not a difficult concept to understand. Of course you put up with the LeBron James circus when you’re going to the Finals every year. When your chance to go to the Finals every year leaves, obviously that’s shitty and you don’t want it to happen. But you can still be happy with certain aspects of the result. Earlier I mentioned being happy about not having to deal with the bandwagonners anymore.
Maybe you just don’t get it because your teams have probably never had the media/an entire nation’s jealousy on their jock for 4 years straight.
But you said it yourself. You put up with it because it means you make the finals every year. Does that mean it’s impossible to make the finals without him? No. But it certainly makes life easier.
Uh…no? I’m just saying that losing the media circus isn’t something that you should be happy about when it’s leaving along with the best player in the league.
What you should be happy about and I assume you are is the fact that the East is still suspect and your Front Office is good enough to reload post-Lebron to remain relevant. I still don’t think you’ll make the Finals, but you’ll be able to sleepwalk into the playoffs with ease.
I mean I understand you’re just giving your opinion, we all have different benchmarks for what we consider success to be, but is anyone really in a position to tell someone else what should make them happy? My team just went to 5 finals in 8 years. That’s more success and joy than some fans have in a lifetime. I’ve been gorging at a fucking happiness buffet. So I think I’ve got a good grasp on this “happy” thing.
The best fit for Melo with regards to basketball was the Bulls, but he should have stayed in N.Y. It’s not like going to Chicago guarantees him anything. If Rose isn’t healthy the Bulls aren’t THAT much better off than the Knicks. The Bulls are the better team, but one or two draft picks or free agents changes that immediately.
2 things could have happened that would’ve changed everything. Pop was close to being fired in the beginning of the season of their first championship. Tim Duncan considered going to Orlando when he was a free agent.
