It bears repeating because the direction basketball is heading in, or rather already has arrived at, hasn’t been fully realised.
– Golden State Warriors beat Cleveland Cavaliers to win NBA title
– ON THE RADAR, June 15-21: Elite Squash Festival
– #360BUSINESS: Neymar is growing into football’s biggest brand
There is still opposition to the increasing style of play which is becoming the norm in the NBA: small-ball and a heavy dose of 3-pointers.
That opposition isn’t made up of insignificant voices. We’re talking about a legendary, future Hall of Fame coach who has 11 rings in Phil Jackson.
We’re talking about one of the greatest players of all-time and a notable analyst in Charles Barkley. These aren’t peripheral voices.
Both Jackson and Barkley this season stated their dislike of jump-shooting and 3-point dependent teams because they claim that style isn’t built for playoff basketball.
Bringing the to the Bay! pic.twitter.com/UtFe4001ye
— Golden St. Warriors (@warriors) June 18, 2015
Even ignoring that just last year the San Antonio Spurs, a ‘jump-shooting team’ in their own right, triumphed, the Golden State Warriors have put a nail in the coffin of the out-of-date way of thinking.
Before saying the Warriors’ title is a ‘told you so’ to Jackson, Barkley and other who share their view, it’s worth mentioning a few qualifiers.
Golden State’s offensive approach very much makes them a ‘jump-shooting team’, but you can’t ignore how strong they were on the opposite end of the floor.
They ranked first in defensive rating – points allowed per 100 possessions – in both the regular season and playoffs, which affords a much larger margin of error on offence.
Oh, and their backcourt features two of the best shooters in the league, one of which, Stephen Curry, is widely considered the best shooter of all-time. When you have the talent the Warriors have, why wouldn’t you want to maximise it to your advantage?
But it’s about more than just shooting. During the regular season, Golden State played at the quickest pace in the league and that has been a point of emphasis under Steve Kerr in his first season.
Kerr, as you remember, was general manager of the Phoenix Suns while they still employed the famous “Seven Seconds or Less” attack. Alvin Gentry, who served Kerr as an associate head coach this season, was also on Mike D’Antoni’s staff for those Phoenix teams.
You already know we had to make the Championship edition!!! #DubNation pic.twitter.com/bG8ACgH3Sa
— Harrison Barnes (@hbarnes) June 17, 2015
In winning the title, the Warriors in many ways finished what the Suns started and proved the flashy style can not only work, but thrive.
Pace-and-space is no longer in vogue; it’s mainstream. Teams who haven’t already started gravitating towards that approach in some way will eventually be like the crowd that started rocking baggy attire in the new millennium: too late.
Eventually, the league will become homogeneous and when it does, the pendulum will swing back.
Right now though, the Warriors are at the forefront and the movement isn’t arriving. It’s already here.
Cavs will come back fit and firing
Don’t shed too many tears for the Cleveland Cavaliers, they’ll be back and stronger than ever.
Yes, the Golden State Warriors did get lucky with their own bill of good health and the unlucky breaks the rest of the league had to deal with, especially Cleveland after losing Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving.
But the Warriors still earned the title and there’s something to be said for staying healthy when you have a deep team that can afford to rest even your star players.
That said, the Cavs were certainly playing at far from their full potential, which is encouraging for their future.
We can play the hyp-othetical game of whether or not they would have beat Golden State with Love and/or Irving all day, but what can’t be denied is that those two would have helped.
“We put ourselves back where this franchise needed to be. To be a contender. But we have a lot of work to do.” – LBJ pic.twitter.com/yDkkoDNawF
— Cleveland Cavaliers (@cavs) June 17, 2015
Assuming Love stays in Cleveland and both he and Irving can ret-urn healthy, the Cavaliers’ offence has the potential to be a juggernaut.
They were already starting to figure things out in the second half of the season, but with a full year under their belt, the sky is the limit.
Those Miami Heat teams with which James won two championships also needed a full season before they began reaching their peak.
Granted, it’s unlikely the suffocating defence Cleveland displayed this postseason will be the same with Love and Irving on the floor, but when you’re outscoring everyone, it might not matter.
