The Warriors still suck/Bundy

Which is why I could see lebron taking a hometown discount. If lebron and Wade get paid below value, you trade love, you can probably also keep Jr Smith, shumpert, and Jefferson in addition to already having Channing Frye. Could probably also look into exchanging shumpert for a big. Not an ideal situation. But there are some intriguing options and I really could see lebron taking a big cut if he knew it brought in Wade.

GS is one injury away from allowing a lineup of either Parker, Green, Kawhi, Pau, Aldridge.....or Kyrie, Smith/Wade, LeBron, Tristan, and Love to beat their assess in the playoffs

Plus GS losing Bogut and Festus to play really small ball.. Even pachulia/west can't fix that problem. The lack of interior presence gives SA and CLE the advantage

who is going to beat them inside besides Lebron

300 year old Pau Gasol? Lamarcus Aldridge? Those guys are soft, Draymond Green can handle both of them.

you make it seem like these teams have prime Shaq inside the paint. The only thing that they can't stop is a 260 lb Lebron flying down the lane running over people like a tight end playing basketball.

Even though the Jazz aren't there yet they will be the toughest front court the Warriors have to face because of their size and length.

Now Ray Allen might sign with golden state lmao

Well he did get one for James but at 41? He can probably still hit the 3 but not much else

It's not just about post defense. It's rim protection as well. Bogut (and to a lesser extent Ezeli) provided cover at the basket for the GSW perimeter defenders. Bogut had a tremendous impact on several games in the playoffs. He made things difficult at times for LeBron early in the series trying to finish around the basket. His injury was big.

That said, I don't think it changes the Warrior's place as favorites. But it will be something (rim protection) they'll have to figure out/overcome.

I don't see anything wrong with these vets going to favorites to get a ring. They've earned that opportunity. They bring something to the table, or the team wouldn't sign them. I have nothing against a guy nearing retirement looking for that one last rush of a title chase. The ring is important, but I think these guys have the perspective to understand it's about that life experience. You want to enjoy life, right? Would you rather "earn respect" toiling away for some crap team that can't win, or play on a team that allows you to truly enjoy your job?

I don't have an issue with that as much as I have an issue with a salary cap in a superstar driven league that does nothing from allowing teams to empire build. And I'm saying this as a fan of the biggest offender, the Cavs. It shouldn't be this easy to build a big three. In an ideal world a superstar would struggle to find good talent around him. And the idea that drafts have been rendered almost meaningless after the first few picks.

It's a challenge silver needs to solve.

Paul Millsap would be perfect for the Cavs. Swap Love for Millsap. Salaries are fairly equal.

Building these superstar teams, remember they had a time they sucked - that's how they got the main pieces to make these things work through the draft.

Sucking and then not paying $33 million/season to Mozgov and Deng....

The Lakers had better hope that somebody's willing to take one or both of those deals off their hands in 3 years. They won't bottle up the cap for the next 2 seasons because none of the Lakers key talent requires a new deal for at least 2 seasons, but in years 3 and 4, they're gonna wish they had that money off their books.

The NBA will be awash in cash until about 2025 when the insane deal that ESPN gave them expires (and long after the cable sports bubble has burst). It'll be fascinating to see if the cap contracts when that deal expires or if the CBA gets mangled again.

I have to disagree. Millsap is an inferior rebounder to Love and cannot stretch the floor as well. He's only a passable three point shooter, and while he offers much, much better defense, it's going to be in the form of rim protection, which doesn't matter that much against the Warriors. You need guys with long arms and quick feet to defend them well.

This is what I find fascinating about all of this, and I'm waiting for it to happen in all sports, not just the NBA. All of these teams are massively overvalued right now, which is why it was interesting to sit and listen to Russ Hanneman opine on Any Given Wednesday about how these teams are good investments.

But hey, at least you'll have Jordan Clarkson and Kendall Jenner relationship status updates during your Lakers games.