NBA: Death of the Stern Affect

[Thread]

That is true, the two biggest obstacles for the Warriors met in the first round, and both of them choked away a home game 6. Once that happened, it was quite obvious who was winning it all.

LeBron sure as shootin' wasn't gonna put up a fuss.

[disciple]

Good take. We shall see starting next year. It's all so fun.

thanks for listening

That's one way to spin it.

The truth is closer to this:

Steph Curry is the face of the franchise, but he was shut down by a nobody that the NBA cannot afford to promote due to him not being capable of living up to it. The Warriors had an amazing season, however much respect they get for it, it should be tempered with the understanding that the league was in chaos during this time. There were stronger forces that were crippled during this run. The Thunder were the heir apparent team, but they fell to injury, as did the Blazers, Mavs, Spurs and even the Rockets for most of the season (and Clippers when Blake was out). Then you have the East where the Cavs lost Love in the 1st round, then Kyrie. Sure you win with what you have, and kudos to the Warriors for doing whatever they needed to do to remain healthy, a lot of that is on Kerr for his minute management of players, however let's not pretend that the Warriors rose from the ashes and smote the horde of dragons in the league. They were the last team standing. If you recall the MMA beginnings on television, they used to have guys fight in a tournament style compe ion for Ultimate Fighter championships. There was a cop from Detroit or somewhere who basically won by default because the guy he was supposed to fight was injured in the previous fight, so he comes out and just tackles the guy and they stop the fight. He had no chance otherwise. Injuries matter.

I expect the individual performers to return to being game changers next season. This team thing is ok, but it doesn't sell jerseys and shoes. You'll have Melo, Rose (maybe), Lillard, Irving, Lebron, Durant, Westbrook, Harden, Curry and Davis (and others) putting up big numbers. The best team in each conference will be the team with the best stars, not like this year. It's nothing to do with Stern, it was an anomaly.

[ambchang]

Mixing up coincidence with causation.

The rule changes that occurred to enable a more free flowing offense was in place years ago. It started with the hand-checking stuff, 3 second violation, but it took coaches years to adapt and build the right rosters. As much as people like to laugh at him, D'antoni brought in European influences, and this was preceded by the Kings using a Princeton-based to moderate success in the early 00s under Adelman. Then Thibadeau with his complex defensive schemes essentially showed the world how to shut down isolation offenses and take advantage of the rule changes.