On Monday night the Golden State Warriors won their second NBA title in three seasons when they beat the Cleveland Cavaliers 129-120. Golden State won the series four games to one and that was their only loss in the playoffs. Even though LeBron James averaged a triple-double in the series Kevin Durant was named M.V.P. of the finals series.
Now let’s face it the NBA playoffs where bad this season. There where no upsets in any of the series and don’t try and tell me that Cleveland as a #2 seed upset the #1 seeded Boston Celtics. The only other lower seeded team to win a series was when the 5th seeded Utah Jazz beat the 4th seeded Los Angeles Clippers in the 1st round, but those teams had the same regular season record coming into the playoffs; so that’s not an upset either. Now you have to wonder if anything will change or if we’ll just see the Warriors and the Cavaliers in the finals for the fourth season in a row.
What I really need to stop happening is for people to try and compare this Golden State team to other great NBA teams of the past. There’s no doubt that this Warriors team is very good, but they haven’t won back to back championships like most if not all great teams have. There’s also the issue of the NBA being a completely different league now than it ever has. Today’s game is a drive and kick the basketball out to the 3-point line type of game. There are times players will pass up a sure lay up to give the ball up to someone standing at the 3-point line. It’s just how the game is played now. Remember when teams use to pound the ball into their All-Star center and let him dominant in the paint. Well the center position has changed so much with this new style NBA that the position doesn’t even exist on the All-Star ballot. With the game being played a different way there’s just no way to compare this Golden State team to the Magic Johnson led show time Los Angeles Lakers or the Celtics team that where led by Bill Russell or those Michael Jordan Chicago Bulls teams.
If you where to bring those teams into this era of the NBA the Warriors would probably win those games, but if the Warriors where sent back to play those three teams in their era the Warriors lose. You have to remember those Celtics teams that won all those championships with Russell didn’t have a 3-point line; so their offense was completely different than any team plays in this NBA. Even for the Lakers and the Bulls the 3-point line is still kind of a novelty, but they had players who could shot it. It’s just tiresome listening to the people on television try to compare the Warriors to the great teams of the past and I don’t think they realize how stupid they come off sounding. On Tuesday I actually saw some goof argue with former Lakers player James Worthy about this. Every point the television host made Worthy had a counter for and was able to point out something in his Lakers favor. I get that it’s a talking point and they’re desperate for things to talk about, but there’s just no way possible to actually get an answer to this; so please let it go.
Now that the NBA season is wrapped up all of the teams can start to focus on the draft which is just 8 days away. The Boston Celtics have the 1st pick and all signs seem to them taking Markelle Fultz the point guard from the University of Washington, but after that it could get interesting. The Lakers have the #2 pick and there are some mock drafts out there that have them passing on Lonzo Ball the UCLA point guard. Now Ball’s father LaVar made it very clear that he only wants his son to play for the Lakers and they where the only team Lonzo was willing to workout for. Now if the Lakers do pass on Ball most of the mock drafts have him going to the Phoenix Suns at #4, but how will his father react to that. The other teams with Top 10 picks are the Philadelphia 76ers at #3, the Sacramento Kings at #5, the Orlando Magic at #6, the Minnesota Timberwolves at #7, the New York Knicks pick 8th with the Dallas Mavericks 9th and the Kings pick again at $10. You can plug which ever college player in with which ever team you’d like, but we won’t know until June 22nd and then if there’s a trade made we have to wait and see who sent who to who. Of course the drama could start right away if the Lakers pass on Ball.
Francisco Rodriquez (K-Rod) struggled so badly this season for the Detroit Tigers took him out of the closers role. Now there are only three men on baseball history that have more saves than Rodriguez, but in 24 games this season he is 2-5 with a 6.23 E.R.A. with 7 saves. Rodriguez is less than happy with the role he now has in the Tigers bullpen and let his feelings be known. Rodriguez mentioned that he didn’t understand what Tigers manager Brad Ausmus was doing with him after Justin Wilson was elevated to the closers role last month. Rodriguez went on to say “Am I being judged on 10 outings? What about the 400 plus saves? What about the 1000 appearances? ” Rodriguez went on to say “I made my loving tough pressure situations, I have not made my living being a mop up guy”. The Tigers took Rodriguez out of the closers spot on May 9th after he had blown saves and picked up losses in his two previous appearances. Rodriguez’s E.R.A. at the time of the move was 8.49 and he had blown 4 of his 11 save chances. Rodriguez also mentioned that neither Ausmus or Tigers pitching coach Rich Dubee spoke to him about his demotion, but that’s been disputed by Ausmus.
If you’re the Tigers; what do you do with Rodriguez?
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