NBA Finals Preview: Warriors vs. Cavaliers is not a rematch

This year’s NBA Finals is a rematch, but it also isn’t. The 2016 NBA Finals do feature the same two teams — the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cleveland — that squared off in the 2015 Finals. But these teams function differently than they did at this time last year.

For Golden State, they were great this year, pushing things to another level a year after winning the title. The Warriors seemed to revel in how good they are, playing with a sort of aloofness and confidence that only can come from believing that you’re great. In building off of last year’s championship, these Warriors rolled to 73 regular season wins, overcame an injured Steph Curry and a 3-1 deficit to the Oklahoma City Thunder to make the Finals and are in the conversation for being considered the greatest team ever. If last year was their rise to power, this is their ongoing coronation.

For the Cavaliers, this is not the team that played in last year’s Finals either. It’s a healthier team. Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love — who played a combined one game in last year’s Finals — are both healthy. The Cavs have Channing Frye to bomb threes and Timofey Mozgov, last year’s hero, is on the bench. They have perhaps the best version of J.R. Smith that has ever existed. These Cavs, as they head towards becoming the offensive juggernaut many thought they’d be the day they assembled their trio of James, Irving and Love, also seem to enjoy playing with each other more than ever before. Instead of scowling and sulking, they are smiling and soaring.

And yet, as much as LeBron doesn’t like it, the Cavs are underdogs against the Warriors. Winning a title by beating this team could go down as LeBron’s greatest achievement.

These teams, though, had the seeds of their rivalry planted with things that didn’t even happen on a basketball court, a year before they even met in the Finals. The history between these two teams goes back a little bit further when rumors persisted that the Warriors were going to trade Klay Thompson for Kevin Love, back when Love was still with the Minnesota Timberwolves and still regarded as a top-15 player. It was a trade proposal that, at the time, seemed like an easy decision for the Warriors. Thompson had yet to emerge as the star he’s really become over the past two season and Love’s value was never higher.

Internally, no one in Golden State seemed to want to deal Thompson. Warriors’ executive board member Jerry West threatened to resign if Thompson was dealt. Steph Curry didn’t want it to happen and, according to Green on an episode of the ‘Bill Simmons’ podcast, no one inside that organization was really in favor of making the move. When they bet on Thompson, and the outsiders mocked them for it, they used it as motivation.

Not long after, after LeBron went back to Cleveland, the Cavs traded for Love. Since then, Love has struggled to find his footing, particularly against the Warriors. A sharp contrast to the emergence of Thompson. And with Love, it seems as if the Warriors — Green in particular — like to go at him and pick on him specifically. It’s almost as if they seek him out, hunting him down in the pick-and-roll, to continuously remind everyone that they never needed Love to win it all.

The battle between two of the NBA’s defining players — LeBron and Stephen Curry — who are both unstoppable, albeit in very different ways, is another fascinating layer. Each has evolved from last season, moving toward the extremes they already reflected. Curry is the shooter breaking the game. LeBron is the versatile superstar, capable of doing anything and comfortable deferring to his teammates’ strengths.

Prior to Curry’s emergence, James was the NBA’s questioned king. Wherever he went, whatever he did, the league followed him. When he went back to Cleveland after winning two titles in South Beach, his place at the top seemed secure and the Cavs seemed to have a clear path to a title. And if anyone was going to take it from him, it wasn’t going to be Curry and the Warriors. It was going to be the Spurs with Tim Duncan and Gregg Popovich, or Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and the Thunder.

The two don’t directly square off due to the fact they are different sizes — LeBron is a freakishly fast bulldozer, 6-8 and 240 pounds; Curry is a shimmying sniper at 6-3 190 pounds. Each does their work in different ways. Both players, too, seem to operate with differing ideologies. Curry is fun and loose always — it’s as big a part of his appeal as his three-point shooting — while LeBron is often serious and stoic. For Curry and the Warriors, their success comes from joy and a constant chip on their shoulder. For LeBron and the Cavs, it’s all business, all the time. The two ideologies all stem from how the teams were assembled. The Warriors simmered and grew together, slowly improving and emerging as a unit. The Cavs, on the other hand, were assembled with one goal in mind that was made clear the day LeBron penned the letter announcing his return in Sports Illustrated.

In this series they square off with reputations on the line. A Warriors win puts Curry up 2-0 on LeBron in the Finals, while a LeBron win gives him a third ring, one for The Land, and the joy of beating a team that no one really thought could lose.

Last year’s series doesn’t serve as a preview of this year’s Finals. These are two teams that are simply different from a year ago. Different is good.

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