The Golden State Warriors’ sweep of the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2018 NBA Finals suggested an inevitability to their 2018 championship, especially after the final game when most of the second half was garbage time. For those who watched the Warriors throughout the playoffs and the regular season, however, the result was anything but assured. During the regular season, the Warriors were frustratingly inconsistent, dominating in one game and mailing in the next. Sometimes their inconsistency showed within the same game, when they would spot opponents double-digit leads in the first half and then storm back in their usual dominant third quarters. Many stories were written about their apparent problems with motivating themselves, and Coach Steve Kerr made no secret of his frustration. They gave up the #1 spot in the Western Conference to the Houston Rockets, a hungry team designed to knock the Dubs off their perch and very nearly succeeded. The Warriors were rattled in Games 4 and 5 of the Western Conference Finals, making crucial mistakes in the closing seconds of both games to allow the Rockets to take a 3-2 lead in the series. If Chris Paul’s hamstring had held up for even one more game, the smart money would have been on Houston to take home this year’s trophy. The Warriors were a historically great team when they had their A game, but they owed their championship in large part to luck. The gulf between them and their competition is not as great as it seems.
If the Warriors hope to extend their dynasty, they will need to clear out most of their roster outside of the Hamptons Five crew of Curry, Durant, Thompson, Green, and Iguodala. Virtually all of their reserves were unable to stay on the court during the playoffs without being ruthlessly exploited on defense or left wide open for shots they couldn’t hit, a situation exposed particularly during the temporary loss of Iguodala in the Houston series. The Warriors still handed out Strength in Numbers T-shirts to their fans, but that phrase is much emptier than it was a couple of years ago when their bench was the envy of the league. Finding capable replacements will require some magic from the Warriors’ front office, since after the Hampton Five’s contracts, the team will likely only be able to afford rookie and veteran minimum salaries for the other roster spots. Even keeping the Five together may be difficult, with both Thompson and Durant up for new deals. The Warriors will be a top contender in 2019, but they may look a lot different come October. One rumor, however, can be dismissed without serious discussion: LeBron James will not be coming to Oakland.
Indeed, the main question of the off-season is the city where the King will employ his talents in 2019. Given the junkyard that is the rest of Cleveland’s roster, staying put is almost certainly out of the question, and plausible cases have been made for several other destinations, including Houston, Philadelphia, Boston, San Antonio and LA. Considering that LeBron already has homes and business interests in SoCal, it would seem that the Lakers, who have sufficient cap space to sign him and a capable sidekick such as Paul George, would be the front-runner to land him, but the rest of their team will still be a work in progress and a significant risk of replicating his situation in Cleveland, with a more competitive Western Conference to overcome if he hopes to extend his current streak of eight straight Finals appearances. The one thing that is assured is that LeBron will become the unquestioned master of whatever team he is on, with more power to make personnel decisions and determine its future than anyone except the owner. Given his questionable record of judging the talents of the teammates he’s recruited and forced his teams to sign, as demonstrated by Cleveland’s roster, taking on the King may be more of a risk for his suitors than it appears.
Much remains to be seen before October. I wish there was some prospect of the Sacramento Kings making a leap forward to contention, but that seems beyond reasonable possibility for the foreseeable future. At least I can still count on the Golden One Center as a great place to see other NBA stars when they come to town. For Sac City, that will have to do for now.
