The biggest question of the 2017 NBA offseason is, “What the hell is everyone supposed to do now?” The Warriors just finished the best three-year regular season run in league history, and beat LeBron at his greatest in five games. Three of those games ended up competitive, but still.
The biggest question of the NBA offseason
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Zach Lowe’s story on the coming reactions to the Warriors is worth your time. One of the GMs who talked to Lowe on the record, Houston’s Daryl Morey, said the Rockets will raise their risk profile and that he has something up his sleeve. As Darren Yuvan of The Dream Shake determines, that’s probably a trade or two since Houston has limited cap space.
What about the Cavaliers? How LeBron assesses the Cavaliers need to react — get another star or tinker around the edges because Cleveland can compete as is — could have major ramifications across the league. The specter of the Banana Boat looms.
The signals on how everyone will react shall begin to appear within days as trade rumors percolate before the draft. Everything will blow apart on July 1 and we’ll see the schemes unfurl in real time. Buckle up.
Zito Madu on how the NBA’s twisted ringz culture created the Warriors.
Howard Beck writes that the Warriors are the real heroes.
The great Jackie MacMullan on Kevin Durant’s still underrated defense.
A very cool breakdown of the underutilized but deadly Kevin Durant-Stephen Curry pick-and-roll from Mike Sykes.
The first three hours of Durant’s life as an NBA champion, starring JaVale McGee on a treadmill and more.
No word on whether the Warriors will be invited to the White House given their previous statements, nor whether they would accept if invited. Andre Iguodala’s idea on how to deal with it is inspiring.
In defense of LeBron’s legacy despite a 3-5 record in the Finals.
A great piece by Doyle Rader on a Harrison Barnes camp in South Dallas that was about much more than basketball.
This ended up as the most-watched Finals since Michael Jordan retired the second time (1998). That it beat the 2015 and 2016 editions of Warriors vs. Cavaliers offers a hint at what drives ratings for the Finals, which have to pull in casual sports fans to do big numbers. That hint: It’s all about the biggest stars. You take the highly rated teams from the 2015 and 2016 Finals, you add Kevin Durant (one of the most famous basketball players on Earth), and you get even better ratings. I’m not sure so much it’s a straight-up appreciation of dominance as it is the energy around so much star power. (This helps explain why the overall lopsided 2001 Finals, starring ultra-famous Allen Iverson and the Lakers’ power duo, was the highest-rated post-Jordan Finals until now.) More study is required, but that’s my working theory.
The Minnesota Lynx came within a point of winning the WNBA title last year while being one of the league’s least prolific three-point shooting teams. Now they are shooting and hitting threes. Watch out.
Only one major international prospect pulled out of the 2017 NBA draft by the league’s final deadline: Rodions Kurucs, a Latvian expected to go in the first round.
Rihanna, a dedicated LeBron fan, Crying Jordan’d herself.
Danny Chau argues that the case that these Warriors were the greatest basketball team ever can be made.
Top players in Europe are discussing unionization efforts.
Will the Lakers take Josh Jackson or Lonzo Ball? This is one of those decisions that seems monumental — and it is for two teams. But it’s quite unlikely to have major ramifications beyond L.A. and the Sixers — Philadelphia will probably take the player of the two that the Lakers do not.
Matt Bonner is quite opposed to Robert Horry’s characterization that Tim Duncan is nowhere near as good as Hakeem Olajuwon.
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