Kevin Durant
Musical Chairs
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.
Back To the Future
By: Kenneth Harrison Jr.
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Here we go again, in the middle of the NBA Finals. For the fourth year in a row Cleveland and Golden State are playing. I expected the Warriors to dominate and win another championship and so far, they have not disappointed.
The first two games were in Oakland and the Warriors maintained home court advantage. They won Game 1, 124-114 in overtime. The biggest moment of the game came with 4.7 seconds left in regulation. George Hill missed a free throw and J.R. Smith grabbed the offensive rebound in the lane. He ran behind the three-point line and dribbled the ball out, expecting a teammate to call a time out.
“I just thought we were going to call a timeout. Because I got the rebound, I’m pretty sure I couldn’t shoot it over KD,” Smith said of Kevin Durant. “If I thought we were ahead, I would have just held on to the ball so they could foul me. Clearly that wasn’t the case.”
LeBron James played amazing, scoring 51 points, snatching 8 rebounds and 8 assists. Kevin Love also added 21 points and 13 boards.
Game 2 was a blow out win for Golden State, 122-103. Steph Curry was the star of the game hitting an NBA Finals-record nine 3-pointers and scoring 33 points.
”Pretty special night,” Curry said, ”and hopefully some more special things happen and we get two more wins.”
Kevin Durant scored 26 points to go with 9 rebounds and 7 assists while also mainly guarding LeBron. Klay Thompson added 20 points playing on a tender left leg. Surprisingly, JaVale McGee scored 12 points, making all six of his shots in his first career NBA Finals start as Kerr made a lineup switch that proved spot on.
James followed up his 51-point performance in Game 1 with 29 points, 13 assists and 9 rebounds in a far tamer finals sequel and a much more lopsided one.
Kevin Love had 22 points and 10 rebounds for the cold-shooting Cavs, who will now try to gain some momentum back home. Game 3 is Wednesday night in Cleveland.
”We want to continue to be uncomfortable,” James said. ”Just because we’re going home doesn’t mean we can relax.”
Cleveland has looked so overmatched that I know they cannot win this series. I think the best chance they have to win a game will be Game 3. The home court advantage should provide a boost to the team.
They only have two-star players, James and Love. The absence of Kyrie Irving is very apparent in this series. The Cavs honestly have a roster loaded with role players. I’m not sure how J.R. Smith is good enough to be the starting point guard on a playoff team but he consistently plays most of the games.
Maybe it’s premature to says that the series is over because we have seen strange things occur. If you recall back in 2016 Golden State was 73-9, the best record ever. They had a 3-1 series lead over Cleveland but the Cavs came back and won the championship.
I know that will not happen this time but hopefully they can steal a couple of games to make this series competitive.
