KD has brought the Golden State Warriors their 2nd title in 3 seasons with a 4-1 romp of the Cleveland Cavaliers. For any fan who loves defence, this was not your series to watch.
It was a lot of exciting offensive basketball, with Steph and KD leading the way for a Warriors team far too superior for LeBron and the Cavs.
LeBron James did all he could for his Cavs, being the first player in the history of the league to average a triple double in an NBA Finals Series. Incredible!
LeBron averaged 33.6 PPG, 12 RPG and 10 APG.
His running buddy Kyrie chipped in with 29.4 PPG, but in the end it really wasn’t enough.
The Cavs role players didn’t come on strong enough when they needed them to. Kyle Korver and Shumpert really struggled, while JR Smith decided to start firing when it was all too late.
Kevin Love averaged 16 PPG along with 11.2 RPG, but only 2 games of 20+ points was never going to be enough. This team needed his scoring for them to even be a chance of winning the series. Love shot a respectable 38% from 3 point range, but with a lot of those shots being open, he needed to be better. He only had one stand out 3 point shooting game in Game 4 of the series, going 6-8.
Other than Game 4 for Love, he shot 26% combined from the 3 throughout the rest of the series. Not good enough when that is pretty much his role now with the Cavs, open corner 3 balls.
Tristan Thompson. What more is there to say, he was awful. Tristan averaged 5.6 PPG and 5.8 RPG. For someone who got paid some serious cash in his last deal, he definitely wasn’t earning it in this series.
Going forward now with our new NBA Champions. You feel as if we will be seeing them celebrate a lot more for years to come. One thing that could change that in the next couple of years is someone already on board with their starting unit, Klay Thompson.
Klay was phenomenal defensively, guarding just about everyone, mainly Kyrie. Kyrie still managed big numbers in the series, but wow he had to earn it. Klay was definitely the unsung hero of this series, whether it was guarding LeBron or Kyrie, or finally finding his stroke in the playoffs, he put his stamp on the series.
Klay still has another 2 years left on his deal. Does he walk after the next two years potentially being apart of a 3 peat with the Warriors and start his own team? Time will tell…
KD was rightfully announced Finals MVP, averaging 35.2 PPG, 8.2 RPG, and 5.4 APG to then go along with 1.6 BPG and 1 steal on the defensive end of the floor. His team mate’s numbers were phenomenal too, and in any other year would have been a clear winner.
Steph averaged 26.8 PPG, 8.0 RPG and 9.4 APG along with 2.2 steals. A lot of people were critical of Steph’s previous finals performances but none can be critical this year. Steph playing second fiddle to KD is just silly, an impossible one two punch to beat. Throw in the likes of Klay and Draymond and it’s a 4 headed monster that’s simply impossible to guard.
KD was heavily scrutinised for making this move to Golden State, almost taking the easy route to winning a title. But not all super teams have won in their first season.
The very first super team built in their prime fell at the final hurdle, and the leader of that crew in Miami was Mr LeBron James. They lost their first finals together to Dallas, before going on and winning back to back titles (the first against a young KD).
As was the case a lot of people were hoping this super team would fail in the Bay Area. But they did it easy, and will do it easy next season too, with their big 4 all in their prime.
Where to now for the rest of the league though? Golden State’s dominance will only force Cleveland to make another big move, something like Melo for Kevin Love may be looked into again. LeBron never sits on his hands and just waits. He isn’t getting any younger and needs more help to push through these Warriors and get his hands on another title.
Boston and Washington are next in line to the Cavs, but even they are ways off them. Gordon Hayward to the Celtics can definitely change this, which would leave the Wizards far enough behind again unless they make a play for someone like a DeMarcus Cousins or Blake Griffin.
Rumours about Chris Paul to the Spurs are only getting stronger but does that make them any closer to beating the Warriors? You wouldn’t think so but it would be fun to see what Chris Paul and Kawhi could do together, as it looks like Chris Paul is just wasting his unbelievable talents in an underperforming franchise!
The Super Team era is completely ruining the NBA. Whether the league needs to put in a salary cap or change the finals format so it is the best 16 teams competing, something has to change.
LeBron made it OK to jump ship and join fellow superstars, KD followed suit. Now everyone wants to do it and it’s blowing the little guys out of the water. It just about makes the regular season meaningless.
This playoff series shows that something has to change. It was blow out central and real bad to watch at times.
Just like all hoops fans, we want to see a contest. We want to see multiple teams competing for an NBA championship, not just two teams.