“Like Night and Day in NBA”

-0-

I guess we all like to see greatness, so it was fun to sit courtside and watch the latest edition of an NBA-Dream Team, the Golden State Warriors take on the Lakers.

It really wasn’t much of a game, a talent-laden Warriors team, the ones with the big gold and blue championship rings on their hand, against a very young Lakers team, tantamount to an ACC-college basketball team.

Golden State plays so fluid, up and down the court, race horse ball, unselfish ball, running, gunning, shooting three’s and getting after it at the other end of the court.

Coach Steve Kerr walked into such a great situation when he took the Warriors job rather than the Knicks job. You’d think it would be easy, just to roll the ball out on the floor, and let Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Kevin Durant and Draymond Green go balling.

But it may be a challenge to manage personalities, and egos, and minutes and shot selection, though to watch them work together is artistry.

For the Lakers, it’s been a painful three year process of losses, injuries, shedding salaries, saying goodbye to Kobe Bryant and the like. Now they are young and athletic, inexperienced, and not very physical.

Brandon Ingram should still be at Duke, his game so far from being polished and physical to compete in the NBA. Julius Randle has nights where he plays really well, and nights where he gets overwhelmed.

DeAngelo Russell, the Ohio State guard looks dynamic, and Jordan Clarkson can shoot.

But the rest of the roster is made up of aging veterans, and fringe players, and not much there to think they’ll do much over an 80-game schedule.

It was fun initially to watch the Miami Dream team of LeBron James, Chris Bosh and Dwayne Wade, and now they’re all gone.

It was fun to see Cleveland put the band back together with LeBron and Kevin Love and the Cavaliers become special.

But I think it is bad for the league in the bigger picture overall. Yes fans will be amped to see all things Golden State when they come into your building. And it will be fund to watch them chase possibly a 75-win season this winter.

But what does it mean to the rest of the league?

Anybody really interested in seeing a Thursday game between Sacramento and Milwaukee? What happens to Oklahoma City, or Detroit, Portland to Orlando, who don’t have enough players, and are just playing a schedule hoping to make postseason ,where they become road kill.

It’s like ‘night and day’ watching the greatness of Golden State vs the rest of the NBA, Lakers included.

The salary cap was supposed to bring equality to the NBA, pay the stars, and keep hopes alive in various NBA cities, they could get good. But agents figured a way to circumvent it all with multi-year deals, one and done transactions, and opt-out clauses that bend the rules.

Big challenge for the NBA going forward, firmer controls of the salary cap, and finding a way that there will be better teams around the league.

There has to be more than just Golden State-vs-Cleveland peaking interest, with everyone else getting ignored.

Please follow and like us: