Let’s be honest, the NBA is boring
This past week, the Cleveland Cavaliers swept the Toronto Raptors in the second round of the NBA playoffs. Just a day later, the Golden State Warriors swept the Utah Jazz in their second round playoff series.
With just the conference finals between now and the NBA championship series, it’s pretty obvious who’s going to go to the big dance. Just check the lede.
Now I get it, I’m being pretty cynical. But how can you not be when the last seven years have been dominated by the same three or four players. When LeBron James decided to take his talents to south beach, he went to the NBA final four times in a row, winning two championships.
Since coming back to Cleveland, he has been to the final twice and won once. Both of those series were against Golden State.
What the last seven years have proved in the NBA, is that a high salary cap and willing superstars can get you very far. With tons of cap space to move around, high caliber players are linking up and creating super teams in order to chase a championship ring. For the past two years, those super teams have been Cleveland and Golden State.
The Warriors became even more overpowered when superstar Kevin Durant left the Oklahoma City Thunder this past offseason to join them. He joined a squad already packed with superstar talent in Steph Curry, Draymond Green and Klay Thompson.
To be honest, it’s not like they needed Durant considering they had the best record in NBA history last year (73–9). But as the saying goes, if you can’t beat them, join them.
Meanwhile, the Cavaliers are composed of the likes of James, Kyrie Irvin, Kevin Love and Kyle Corver.
Considering the names on both of these teams, it’s obvious why they’ve played each other in the finals two years in a row. Sure, Durant is only a recent addition to the Warriors, but the team was already a super team before he showed up. With Curry’s ability to shoot three-pointers and Green and Thompson’s ability to play good defence and in-your-face offense, the team has been unstoppable.
The problem here lies with the fact that there is only so much talent to go around. When five of the 30 teams in the league are competitive, and the rest have nowhere to go but the middle of the pack, the season becomes boring.
From the very start of the season, it was obvious that the Warriors and the Cavaliers would meet each other in the final again. I mean yeah, 82 regular season games and three playoff series need to be played before that happens but let’s be realistic, who’s going to beat them?
In the west there’s the San Antonio Spurs, a formidable opponent who has been one of the top teams in the league over the last two decades. But like most teams that dominate for a long time, their best players like Tony Parker are aging and aren’t as effective anymore. All season the Warriors dominated the Spurs and in a potential third round match-up, the Warriors would easily win in five or six games.
Then we go to the east where no one is challenging the Cavaliers. Sure, the Celtics finished first in the east but that’s only because the Cavaliers forgot how to play defence for a month. Throughout the month of March, the Cavaliers were abysmal and ultimately gave up their number one spot in the conference. Since then, the Cavaliers have found their game and have been unstoppable in the playoffs. The Celtics could push them to six games, but I don’t see it going longer.
Now contrast the NBA’s super teams with the NHL. In the NHL, almost every team has a chance. There is so much parity across all 30 teams that it keeps every night interesting. Just look at the Western Conference where an eighth seeded team in the Nashville Predators is now in the Western Conference final. They swept the top ranked Chicago Blackhawks in the opening round.
This is something that would never happen in today’s NBA. It’s what makes the NHL interesting and the NBA boring.
The NBA has become all too predictable while other sports are incredibly unpredictable. While it may be good for marketing the game around a rivalry, having only two contenders in your league is a disservice to the fans.
For now, it’s out of the league’s hands. Players are autonomous and can make their own decisions and as long as that’s the case, super teams will continue to exist. It’s a sad reality, but for now basketball fans have to accept that we are in the James/Curry era, and it’s going to be a while before we see a new team rise up and contend for a championship.
Cole’s Corner is a sports column written by Alexander Cole published every Monday by The Pitchwriter. Follow us to receive our stories every day in your inbox.
