By: JJ Lanier

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

After what amounted to a pretty exciting playoff, the NBA season finished just as most of us expected; with Golden State defeating Cleveland in the finals.

It was kind of like being lactose intolerant and eating ice cream; you enjoy consuming it, but you ultimately know what the end result will be.

With a regular season that has become somewhat mundane and a predictable postseason, you can argue that the best time of the NBA season is upon us; the NBA offseason.

As much as fans complain that “Super Teams” are ruining the NBA product, just the possibility that any player is willing to change teams- even if they happen to be one of the best players in league- has turned it into the most intriguing offseason of either of the three major sports.

The NFL Draft, with all of its’ uncertainty and build up, is better than the NBA Draft, but it’s free agency period falls well short of its basketball counterpart.

Yes, the NFL has its share of player movement in the offseason but the caliber of player involved in those moves doesn’t compare to that of the NBA. The decisions (no pun intended) LeBron (Cleveland-Miami-Cleveland-who the hell knows) and Durant (Oklahoma City- Golden State) have made would be like Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers leaving their respective teams, which just doesn’t happen very often in the NFL.

Well, if I’m going to spout about how the NBA’s downtime is superior to everyone else’s because of their free agency, I should probably mention some of the possible movement to look out for this summer.

The two big names are the two I just mentioned; LeBron James and Kevin Durant. It’s pretty common knowledge that Durant will stay in Golden State. In fact, I think he may have even stated that. As for James, I feel more comfortable trying to predict the end to Game of Thrones than I do trying to figure it where LeBron will wind up.

Besides those two, there are some other big name players on the free agent market.

Paul George, Chris Paul, and Demarcus Cousins, are the next tier of players, which is still pretty impressive when you consider two of those three could very well be with new teams next year.

I don’t think Paul is going anywhere. Houston could very well have been playing in the Finals had he not missed the last two conference final games and the Rockets have as good a chance as anyone to land LeBron. Kind of hard to walk away from that.

Paul George and DeMarcus Cousins, on the other hand, are different stories.

George is going to end up with either the Lakers or Thunder. He seems to have enjoyed his time in OKC and playing with Russell Westbrook. The allure of playing in LA, George’s hometown, may too much, especially in LeBron decides to head out west.

I have no idea about Cousins. I wouldn’t be surprised if he signs to play in Beijing because he likes Chinese food, he’s just that type of guy.

Then you have players like Aaron Gordon, DeAndre Jordan, and Jabari Parker, who could all opt for free agency.

The point is, even if you’re only an occasional fan of the NBA during the season it’s ok, the best part of the league is about to start.

I’m not sure exactly what that means for the NBA, but I know I’m as interested as anyone to see how the dominoes fall.