Opinion: Why the Golden State Warriors could retain their title this season
Yet another NBA season starts and the NBA fans in India are super hyped than ever before. The regular season started this October 17 5:30 am IST.
In the 73rd edition of the NBA, we are gonna witness some of the best action of pro basketball as all the 30 teams gear up in order to match the greatness of the defending champs i.e., The Golden state warriors.
Some of the biggest off-season moves this summer included LeBron Raymone James, Lance Stephenson and Rajon Rondo to the Los Angeles Lakers.
Now the addition of these well-versed veterans the young Lakers roster puts them in a playoffs contending team definitely.
Boogie Cousins was signed by the Warriors on a one-year deal at $5.3M which is lower than his base price but he seemed pretty happy with that.
Basically, this was because of his injury preceded season that he wasn't able to get the desired contract. But this is going to add a lot of depth to the Warriors' front-court.
The Warriors were unable to sign a good big man who could play the role of center with all the star players they already have but they did, thanks to DeMarcus.
The DeRozan-Kawhi trade involving the Raptors & Spurs was a big controversy with both the players being so loyal to their respective franchises over all these years but it was all God's plan.
With Kawhi moving to the east, he has a better chance of taking the Raptors all the way to the finals due to a less competitive eastern conference.
Other such transfers involved DeAndre Jordan to the Mavs, Melo to the Rockets, Brook Lopez to the Bucks and much more.
Also, the rookies who might make a promising impact are Luka Doncic, DeAndre Ayton, Trae young, Kevin Knox, Miles Bridges, Marvin Bagley III.
Before the start of this season, you all might have heard a lot of rumors on how Golden State won't win three straight championships, how LeBron's move to the Western Conference would allow the Boston Celtics led by Brad Stevens an easy passage (more like a backdoor cut literally) to the NBA Finals.
And LeBron, being "The chosen one" will take the 11th seed Lakers who finished with a 35-47 {W-L} record last season all the way to the finals and then we'll witness both these great franchises facing in the NBA Finals back again which in turn will earn a lot of revenue to the NBA.
But let me put this straight for you, to be honest, this is not gonna happen. Why so....!! Well, I'll break down everything for you on the next section.
The Lakers core is basically a group of very talented youngsters who are still struggling to figure out how the NBA really works.
The addition of a few veterans this year is going to be helpful for sure but won't win them a championship. That's because this is gonna be their first season together and it'll be really tough for them to work on their chemistry, unlike the Warriors Dynasty.
Also except those vets, these rising stars haven't experienced even the playoffs. Even if the Lakers make the playoffs somehow they have less than 3% chances of winning the Finals.
So from the west, it's going to be Golden State again into the Finals although the west is star padded all throughout.
This is because Rockets lack consistency in playoffs to some extent, Jazz don't have enough big-time players to match GSW, Timberwolves still can't figure out what to do with Jimmy Butler, Pelicans don't have go-to-guys off the bench, OKC has Russ who cares about a triple-double the most than anything else in the world.
Now moving on to the eastern conference, after the Raptors added Kawhi Leonard, Danny Green and Greg Monroe to their present roster, they are legit championship contenders.
This is because from last two seasons Kawhi was out of action from the playoffs with the Spurs after the injury and all those misunderstandings going on.
So this season he's really going to show what he's got behind that awkward smile which we all care about.
With a little help from Kyle Lowry, they can really be the Eastern Conference champs. Apart from Raptors, there's this Boston team which we can rely on plus Gordon Hayward is back this season from the devastating ankle injury.
Another team that has a chance of making into the finals from the east is Milwaukee Bucks. With the addition of two talented big men in Brook Lopez and Ersan Ilyasova, the Bucks can go all way to the NBA Finals.
The only thing they need is the "Greek Freak" (Giannis Antetokounmpo) to continue his tremendous form.
If he continues to amaze everyone with the stat padding stuff then he's gonna win that MVP challenge by Kobe soon.
So it's gonna be pretty much some better eastern team as compared to Cavs who'll play the Warriors in NBA finals again.
But to be honest, I would say the Golden State Warriors are gonna be the NBA champions yet again because no one can match the Superteam along with DeMarcus Cousins on board.