Some of us have a more fatalist viewpoint of the NBA than others. I definitely count myself more on the pessimistic side of things when it comes to thinking there’s team out there that is is going to be able to dethrone the Golden State Warriors.
But I am way, way far away from Jeff Van Gundy. That guy is leading the pack.
Van Gundy recently went on a Sirius XM show to talk about the NBA, and during his interview mentioned that he thought the Warriors already had a clear path to another championship in 2018.
Specifically, Van Gundy hinted that unless the NBA did something to curtail their dominance, there was nothing the rest of the league could do to stop them.
“The Warriors are going to win forever if everything stays the same,” Van Gundy said, adding, “this season is over.”
Van Gundy said even if the Cleveland Cavaliers use the 2018 Brooklyn Nets pick they acquired from the Boston Celtics for Kyrie Irving to trade for another superstar, like Paul George, they still would not be better than the Warriors.
“We’re going to play it out, and the Warriors are going to win,” Van Gundy said. “And then next year is going to be the same thing.”
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“2018 is a wrap,” Van Gundy said. “Let’s start talking about 2019.”
I will go ahead and side with Van Gundy in saying that I believe the Warriors will repeat. That in and of itself is not necessarily a hot take.
But coming out so strong about it so early in the year is more bold than you’d expect. We are giving the caveat here that nobody is going to get injured -- like Stephen Curry did in the playoffs two seasons ago -- which would muddy the path to a finals repeat.
Still, it’s hard to see how anybody is going to stop Golden State. The Cavaliers definitely got deeper by adding Jae Crowder, but with Kyrie Irving no longer in the picture there are still some serious considerations to be had with that team. LeBron had to do it all for them against the Warriors last year, and he definitely ran out of gas. I’m not sure the Isaiah Thomas trade really changed that.
Meanwhile, the teams in the West have strengthened themselves but they still aren’t a match on paper for Golden State.