2018 NBA finals musing

The NBA finals finished last night with the Golden State Warriors finishing the sweep of the Cleveland Cavaliers. On the whole, the Warriors completely deserve the series win: they had the better team, the better coaching and the better play. The Cavs are a limited team lifted to excellence by Lebron James and it showed. If Lebron wasn’t amazing, they were easily dominated. If he was amazing, it was close.

So the 2017-2018 NBA season is over (bar the sideshow of the draft) and it was, unfortunately, a predictable end. What’s really intriguing is the free agency of Lebron James. If he stays at Cleveland, he becomes irrelevant. They will always be a force while he plays like this, but he can’t play like this forever and they do not have the assets to make good drafts and enhance the team to another level. Therefore, if he wants to win the championship again, he must move to another team.

Of the current contenders, Boston are out because of Kyrie Irving and his relationship with Lebron, and the Warriors can’t afford him. That leaves the Houston Rockets or the Philadelphia 76ers. Either could work and can make the right gymnastics to afford the premier free agent this season (premier in most seasons, frankly). But what if he goes with something a little more left-field?

The San Antonio Spurs don’t have much room for manoeuver but they have a number of great players and (hopefully) Kawhi Leonard back next season. They also have Gregg Popovich who James would undoubtedly like to work with.

How about the Indiana Pacers? They’re a young, tough-minded team that have a lot of room for making drafts and getting free agents. Or the Raptors? If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em, as the saying goes.

My personal favourite choice would be the Utah Jazz. They have the cap space and the assets, plus putting the old head of James alongside the young gun Donovan Mitchell would be fascinating. Probably not going to happen, but wouldn’t it be cool if it did?