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NBA Playoffs 2015: NBA Finals Preview

– The video above is a cool fan mash up retro NBA On NBC intro including highlights of both Steph Curry and Lebron James…

So we finally come to the end of it all with the NBA Finals. Bestowed is a chance to be ensconced in NBA history as the best of the best in the 2014-2015 NBA season. Lebron James, now playing in his fifth straight finals appearance, returned to the Cleveland Cavaliers in the offseason after four years with the Miami Heat. He looks bring that ever-elusive championship home to Cleveland. But standing in his way is the token power house team of the west: the Golden State Warriors. This match up should prove to be one of the best NBA finals in years and here are three reasons why.

 

  1. Two rookie coaches are dueling each other for the prize  (One was almost an assistant for the other)

Steve Kerr leads the Warriors into the finals. A new signing and rookie head coach, he led the Warriors to their best regular season in franchise history. From the start of things they looked primed to win it all. Through the first half of the season they had only lost one home game and only six overall. No doubt this Warriors team was the favorite to do something special in the playoffs and they have not disappointed.

What Steve Kerr has done so well with this team has been the things that nobody really talks about. The defense and rebounding of the Warriors has been phenomenal. Those two things are absolutely vital to a team looking to win it all. They are fundamental aspects of a winning basketball team. Kerr has his Warriors doing both of them effectively and constantly.

The Cleveland Cavaliers are led by their own rookie coach in David Blatt. Almost an assistant for Kerr and the Warriors, Blatt was the surprise signing by Cleveland. He was supposed to lead a team that would possibly be in the stages of rebuilding and was maybe looking to make the playoffs as a lower seed. They had former first overall picks Kyrie Irving, Anthony Bennett and a whole new first overall pick to choose in the 2014 draft.

But after selecting Andrew Wiggins with said pick and then getting Lebron to return via free agency they had to reassess. After making some big moves and they looked to continue their championship quest with a main roster core of Lebron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love. Love came over in a trade with the Timberwolves for their last two first overall picks. (Bennett and Wiggins)

Now Blatt was faced with a whole different team. Instead of just on the cusp playoff expectations he was now pushed onto the pedestal of winning a championship. Especially now that Cleveland had their golden boy back. The man who had brought his team to five of the last eight NBA Finals was playing for them again. The Cleveland Cavaliers under David Blatt have so far lived up to all the hype. They still need to go one more though to complete the dream and bring a championship home to Cleveland.

 

  1. Lebron James and Steph Curry both are doing things that may never ever be done again.

And we should marvel at that. Anytime we as fans are presented with an opportunity to view something in the sports world that may never be viewed again, it is truly special. It is something that we can tell all the people that did not witness it, how great it was to see it in the time it was happening. In addition to basically winning over the fan base of the whole NBA and setting the record for most three point shots made in a season, Steph Curry will continue to extend his post season record of three pointers made.

He passed Reggie Miller’s previous record of fifty eight, and he did it back in game three of the western conference finals. Steph Curry is in the making of becoming the absolute best three point shooter of all time. He may not ever have a team like this around him again. Therefore he could be facing situations in which he would get more attention in his next postseasons. He may have trouble amassing the amount of three pointers he has made this postseason, possibly never doing it again. So this is the best postseason for a three point shooter EVER and nobody will do what Steph Curry is doing again probably in the history of the NBA

On the other hand Lebron James is showing us the true meaning of making people around him better. By willing his team past the Eastern conference and going to the NBA finals with an ever injured Kyrie Irving, he is really showing us that he is this generations Micheal Jordan. He did it once before when he was on the Cavaliers in the beginning of his career. The best player he had on that team was Zydrunas Ilgauskas and nobody expected him to even be close to the finals that year.

Lebron James has gotten the Cleveland Cavaliers this close again without much of a team. Sure the additions of Iman Shumpert and J.R. Smith have helped their depth. Shumpert brings the much-needed secondary tough perimeter defender they were lacking and J.R. gives them a nice third option when Kyrie is not hitting shots. But let us be honest, Micheal Jordan never won a championship with Dennis Rodman missing the whole playoffs and Scotty Pippen playing through an injury. If Lebron wins it for Cleveland this year than he will have something over Jordan. And nobody should ever make the argument for a watered down eastern conference, because belittling the road to the NBA finals is just ludicrous. It is never easy.

 

  1. This is the first exciting finals in a long time, and it may be the last one for a while

Honestly I think the last good NBA finals was five years ago when the Lakers played the Celtics. Seeing the the Los Angeles Lakers take on the Boston Celtics and having the series go seven was terrific, it was the two power houses of the NBA. It was one bad guy against another in my opinion and that made for a good match up. Seeing the Dallas Mavericks beat the Miami Heat in their first year as their super team was also nice especially because it yielded a championship for one of my favorite players of all time: Dirk Nowitzski. But still I consider the 2010 finals was better because of the teams playing, I did not know who to root for.

And that scenario has presented itself again; this is a finals where I do not know who to root for. You have the Golden State Warriors who have not even made the finals in years. They looked so good throughout the season you almost are dying for them to finish it off and really go down in history as one of the best teams ever. It would be amazing and a great accolade to the young Steph Curry’s career to have a ring.

And on the other side you have the constantly tortured basketball franchise of Cleveland. They have been nothing without Lebron, as they were horrendous in the four years he left. Now he looks to redeem himself, it would be amazing to see, it makes you want to root for him again. While he was on the Heat he was the bad guy, forming a super-team only made the Heat fans happy. Lebron will go down in history but if he wins this championship, in this year with the injuries incurred by his team against a Golden State Warriors team that has that much going for them going into it. He will have a legitimate argument on why he is better than Michael Jordan.

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