5 reasons Warriors win 2017 NBA title with Kevin Durant
By Tom West
2. How can the Cavs’ defense cope?
We can’t fully guarantee that the Cavaliers will be returning to the NBA Finals in 2017. They still have some changes to make in free agency and have already lost a couple of players in Matthew Dellavedova and Timofey Mozgov (neither very traumatic, of course) and nothing is set it stone.
However, with LeBron James surely coming back and Kyrie Irving’s elevation in the Finals, it’s incredibly hard to see that they won’t be returning next year. It’s just what LeBron does.
The problem for them now, though, after increasing their defensive effort, hustling hard on the boards, and rallying behind Irving’s scoring and a historic effort from LeBron to win the final three games, is how can they defend a Warriors team with Kevin Durant?
LeBron can switch on his dominant defensive powers and take Durant, but that requires even more from Irving and whichever guards and wings they have on their roster to take Curry and Thompson.
Even when they go cold, as they both did (Curry in particular) at times in the Finals, stopping them is almost impossible and doing so consistently is even harder. If anything, it’s Durant’s Thunder team from the Conference Finals, despite losing a 3-1 lead, that laid down the kind of long, switching, athletic, relentless team defense that no one else is capable of.
Providing they make it back to the Finals and the Warriors are there to meet them, how can they stop a Warriors team that just added Durant?
While completing the bench will be somewhat of a work in progress with key sixth man Andre Iguodala likely leaving, the starting lineup and small-ball potential with Durant at the four seems almost impossible to guard over an entire series, including this Cavs team.
That being said, another LeBron-KD Finals matchup will be incredible. And as we learned this year, you cannot overlook The King.
Next: 1. An easier route to the Finals