[2017 NBA Finals] Golden State Warriors vs. Cleveland Cavaliers

the cap is way different in 2017 than it was in 1995 because the minimum went up which inflated the mid.

ryan anderson makes more now a year than what jordan did in the early 90's.

horace grant would probably be a $20+ million player in 2017

 

I hate the direction the League has gone with Superfriends & ringchasers...FIXED SERIES/GAMES, etc. That said, last nights game was played on a very a high level. I was rooting hard against GS (even though BOTH teams exemplify what is wrong with sports).

..Thought Cleveland had it....but, KD WAS the difference.

Anyway, I'm glad the hoops season is over...sad commentary on the state of affairs.

 

Farmers farm, fishermen fish, and ultrastacked teams win. Yawn. This was decided last July. Maybe it'll be good again by 2020.

 

He didn't have 3 defenders on him nor 2. He had Draymond on him w/ KD sagging in the paint (guarding nobody). They basically dared him to shoot off the dribble. He could've stepped back as he drove left, or did a quick spin right and got a mid range. Stop exaggerating

 

[SI] LeBron James talks about the differences between him joining Miami and KD joining Golden State

 

Kyrie on missing the step-back jumper late in Game 3 loss — 'The creativity and having that confidence, it's unwavering, man.'

 

You should be banned from posting because of this:

http://bbs.clutchfans.net/index.php...on-and-hyprocrisy-of-the-sports-media.283185/

You didnt bother to look up that the league announced the awards show before the season and not in the middle of the season therefore making that thread useless

http://www.nba.com/article/2016/11/01/nba-host-first-ever-awards-show-june-2017


Tell us another conspiracy of yours that can be debunked with 5 minutes of google research.

 

Agreed. Cavs played their heart out last night but still not enough because this warriors team is arguably the best of all time. The NBA is going to be unwatchable in the next few years.

 

At this point you'll have just to hope Klay Thompson leaves in a couple of years looking to be the man or something similar in another team...if the Warriors will not trade him and they will end up losing him, they will still be great, but a little bit less great at least...unless nobody trades them a top prospect for Thompson lol

 

But but Thompson is the best SG of the league....
Well, true as Harden became a PG.

 

After Butler maybe (even though many people maybe consider him a SF)

 

No one is talking about Curry taking a Cleveland Steamer on the Cavs after KD's 3 to win the game???

This classless cocky b*stard took a dump on the entire city of Cleveland. Way to teach your kid Riley class, you classless priviledge light skin dude

 

The league will grow the salary cap . . so I dunno if money will be an issue

Rocket River

 

lebron has been on 7 straight finals teams. 3 of them won and 2 others (2011 and 2015) played good enough defense to win the finals if their O had been good, especially 2015. and all of that was done without a rim protector. so either lebron's teammates have been championship-level defenders good enough to overcome the lack of a rim protector while lebron has just been above average, or lebron has been really really good. i take the latter viewpoint. it's not just that he guards derrick rose, it's that he also guards paul pierce. that he also can guard paul george when needed. can switch on a power forward when needed. maybe most importantly just makes people give up the ball when he's on them because there's not much point going at him because, even if he can't suffocate you on the perimeter like jordan , he'll probably just force you to take a pull-up jumper with at least a light contest, which isn't something to base an offense on. and he can do that 1 through 4.

and then on top of all of that, he's a rim protector in his own right. he and wade pretty much held a block party for tim duncan and tiago splitter in the 2013 finals. he didn't just get a chase-down block on iguodala last year, he was protecting the rim after mistakes in the halfcourt. he was challenging while going vertical without a block on a ton of shots at the rim. he was the footsteps the warriors heard at the rim. and he managed to lead the series in blocks and steals. lebron's insane versatility to basically never be "the mismatch" along with the physical freak plays along with normally just not being challenged are what make him so good and why, even without a rim protector, his teams have been championship-level on defense.

when you don't have to play 46 minutes and carry the entire offense and you have 2 other elite defenders (iggy and draymond) to share defense with, it makes it much easier to do these things.

he's averaging a 30 point triple double on great efficiency against a cadre of elite defenders and an overall elite team defense. i'm sure a pass here or there can be nitpicked but he seems to be scoring and passing at a fairly high level.

while i do think he's pushing the narrative that they're so great so he can say it wasn't his fault, i don't think it matters. he's averaging a 30 point triple double and getting blown out. he could be averaging a 40 point triple double and be down 2-1. if the expectation is that you have to go at a 40 point triple double level against the #2 defense in the league just to compete, then the expectations are too high.

 

well two things happened. he had a great finals against golden state (partly because he is athletic enough to switch on the perimeter and partly because he's so good at offensive rebounding). and there was a cap explosion coming the next off-season so people were already getting paid big money. and most of those guys still seemed like bargains the next offseason.

thompson was very good last season and excellent in the finals. worth his contract and then some. just helping the cavaliers win the title probably makes him worth his whole contract. then he was good this year and has just sucked in the finals, which is weird because this is the team (or at least the same style) that he has succeeded against the last two finals. he might have been helped by being lebron's buddy but he's worth his contract.

 

That's fine. I see it a lot like LeBron is just now facing the bump in the road after a decade worth of facing weak competition in his conference and an old Spurs team several times and a too young OKC team in the Finals, whereas MJ went through that early facing the Bucks as a rookie, then the Celtics 2x and then the Pistons 3x before beating them. That's 2 dynasties in the way just to make it to the Finals and face another dynasty in the Lakers. 2 different career paths, but regardless of winning or losing, those 2 players stand out above the rest in nearly all advanced metrics and even raw statistics and awards with Kareem right there in the conversation as well.

 

Jordan almost always had the best record going into the finals
was rarely an underdawg

Rocket River

 

Well, hard to play lesser teams when you're winning 61 to 72 wins through 6 years. The one season they were a 57 win team in 93, they beat the 60 win Knicks and then the 62 win Suns in the Finals. Any other year against any other competition..the 64 win Sonics would have been favorites. Also swept the 60 win Magic to get there. In 97, the Jazz were a 64 win team. Bulls beat the 61 win Heat just to face the Jazz. In 98, Pippen was hurting most of the 98 season missing 38 games. Bulls with 62 wins beat the Jazz who also had 62 wins.
Pretty much every round MJ played in throughout his career faced a team with a HOFer.
Other than beating the Celtics Big 3 past their primes, and late past prime Duncan and Ginobili, what other HOFers has LeBron beaten other than beat up Warriors last year and a 23 year old Thunder core. I don't believe for one second the Heat were not favorites in any series especially that last Finals loss. Just b/c they had 54 wins, that didn't reflect that DWade only played like 50 games and LeBron and Bosh were still resting here and there. You had the best player in the world in his prime and Bosh at 29 and Wade at 32. Duncan was 37 years old and Kawhi was a 22 year old 13ppg and 6rpg player. The Heat were not a 54 win team just as Clevland is not a 51 team this year just as the Bulls were not really a 57 win team in 93.

Not like MJ was facing 40 win teams on his road to the finals against weak teams. The overall road to being champions was harder in his career compared to Lebron not being the favorite against the Warriors 3x. Boo hoo. He had to play just the Warriors 3x as the only competition in 12 playoff series. I wont even bother counting the 07 season b/c he had no business in the Finals in the first place due to that garbage conference which is my point. Jordan faced those HOF stacked teams in his early days on his own with no help and in 5 game series. Those were his underdog sweep losses that LeBron never had to really go through.

 

The bigger problem is not these Finals. The bigger problem is that this is the first year that Durant joined the Warriors. Teams get better the 2nd year.