Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry form a formidable 1-2 punch in Golden State. (GETTY IMAGES)
Last year more than half of the NBA general managers got it right by picking the Cleveland Cavaliers to win the Larry O’Brien trophy. This year, an overwhelming number of general managers are predicting that the Golden State Warriors are winning it all in June.
The annual NBA GM survey shows 69 percent of pro basketball’s decision-makers are taking the Warriors over Cavs in the Finals. And why not.
With the acquisition of Kevin Durant during the offseason, the Warriors now boast four of the top 10 players in the league. This is a franchise that won a record 73 games last season and came within one groin of winning back-to-back NBA titles.
They have two former MVPs in Durant and Stephen Curry, arguably the best two-way player in the league in Klay Thompson, and a top-flight power forward in Draymond Green.
To say that the Warriors are the favorites to win the title this season would be like saying Drake has a shot at dating someone like Rihanna. It’s a lock!
Let’s be real here. Nobody can beat these Warriors. It would be a monumental upset if that were to happen. It would be equivalent to the men’s USA Basketball squad losing in the Olympics or FIBA World Cup. They’re that good and that loaded. They just added the third-best player in the world to their roster to play with the second-best player in the world. This doesn’t even happen in fantasy basketball.
You can review basketball history and won’t find a roster with two MVPs at the height of their powers playing alongside each other. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was at the tail end of his career when he hooked up with Magic Johnson. Wilt Chamberlain was no longer in his prime when he played with Jerry West. And Kobe Bryant was in his early 20s when he teamed up with Shaquille O’Neal.
The Warriors will cruise through the regular season and barely break a sweat securing the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference. A lesson learned from a season ago is that regular-season records don’t matter if you don’t win the chip. Once the playoffs arrive, expect these Dubs to go into overdrive and obliterate the competition, including LeBron James’ Cavaliers.
In the words of Clubber Lang, prediction for teams playing the Warriors this season is … pain!