With the Golden State Warriors’ recent championship repeat, people are wondering who can beat them. The Cleveland Cavaliers are the only team to ever beat the Steph Curry era Warriors in the Finals, but with their star, LeBron James, likely leaving for a new team, the Cavs are sort of out of the running. Although, the constant threats of the Houston Rockets, New Orleans Pelicans, and Utah Jazz are present, LeBron’s looking to other Eastern Conference Teams add the Philadelphia 76ers, the New York Knicks, or the Boston Celtics.
Also looking at heading to the Rockets, Pelicans, Jazz, Spurs, and Lakers, there’s a plethora of possible locations for the King. We all know that any team run by LeBron has a shot against the Warriors, so his choices greatly affect who could topple the terrible team trying to three-peat. This article will cover both teams that could beat the Warriors as is, and their chances with him. As for the teams who could win with LeBron, we’ll only look over the teams that could acquire him. First, we cover the Western Conference: HOUSTON ROCKETS: James Harden led the Rockets to almost a victory over the World Champions in Game Seven of the Western Conference Finals, and they only lost the game by nine points. The Rockets were the favorites to win the Finals after Boston’s Kyrie Irving was ruled out for the season in the second half. They only lost Game Seven after their game plan fell apart: their shooting was undisciplined and their passes were infrequent. At that point Golden State capitalized and that led to lots of fast breaks which put the Warriors ahead. Without choking, Houston is the team teeing off against LeBron. Speaking of LeBron, possibly the greatest clutch player of all-time, if Harden and Trevor Ariza had the King playing at their sides, there’s no doubt that they would have dumped Curry and Kevin Durant into the waters between Oakland and San Francisco. And yes, they have the cap room. NEW ORLEANS PELICANS: Anthony Davis and Jrue Holiday are a powerful duo and they took the powerful Warriors to an extra game in the Western Conference Semifinals. They’re always a threat in the West and they have a protected first round pick in the 2019 Draft. Not to mention that they have improving players and veterans to help lead, such as Nikola Mirotic, Demarcus Cousins, and Rajon Rondo. UTAH JAZZ: Donovan Mitchell is a godsend to Salt Lake City and he took Houston to five games in the second round. He’s also likely to be second in the voting for the Rookie of the Year behind Philly’s Simmons and just ahead of Boston’s Jayson Tatum. Alongside Rudy Gobert, you shouldn’t count the Jazz to leave a measure early. When Gordon Hayward made a sharp turn for Boston, he left the Jazz improvising with what they thought were flat notes. Thankfully, the rookie, Mitchell made sure they didn’t skip a beat, and brought the season to a forte fortissimo. Next year, assuming Houston doesn’t pick up LeBron, their team will start to feel the effects of aging on Trevor Ariza and injury on Chris Paul. Utah will breeze past them. In addition to that, Mitchell is playing better than a young Steph Curry, so alongside Gobert, Jae Crowder, and next year’s first round draft pick, Mitchell will lead the Jazz past Golden State. SAN ANTONIO SPURS: LeBron would play a huge factor, and they’d probably only have a shot until Manu Ginobili retires and until Kawhi Leonard leaves. That’s right, San Antonio wants to trade their star and he doesn’t particularly want to stay, anyway, so even if LeBron comes to that Texas team in particular, they’ll only be a flavor of the month. However, should LeBron end up in silver, that would make them a formidable foe for Curry’s Warriors. His and Kawhi’s defense would likely shut down the usually golden shooting display and it’s pretty clear how that offense would play (hint: it’s freaking awesome). LOS ANGELES LAKERS: Only if they had LeBron. Why? He’s LeBron. Enough said. Also, Kyle Kuzma provides the scoring from the outside that’s perfect to accompany a great inside scorer like LeBron. Also, Lonzo Ball’s passing puts him near the top in assists, so if LeBron joins him, the flow will be incredible. The Cavs needed a good passing game to move the ball outside so Kyle Korver and Kevin Love could pull off better shots and to move the ball inside so they hit LeBron while he’s open. But the only player on the team with the ability to do that was LeBron, and in basketball passing to yourself is a travel, so he couldn’t really do that unless he was tossing it off the backboard for a dunk from the free throw line. But, he dearly needs a good passer, and with one, he can beat the Warriors. PHILADELPHIA 76ERS: Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons almost led Philly to the Eastern Conference Finals. In half the games the Celtics took against Philly, Philly fought hard and brought the game down to the wire. And with injured players and an inexperienced, recovering Markelle Fultz, they should be dropping confetti from the ceiling for that accomplishment. Let’s just let that last part sit for a moment… Anyway, J.J. Redick also showed a stand up performance hitting the deep, contested threes that they need from him. Next season, Philly will prove to be near the top again, and if Boston stays injury prone, which they likely will, there will be a new king in the East and they’ll be full of brotherly love. LeBron is also looking at the Liberty Bell for a new home (not to mention that JuJu Smith-Schuster would love to put the King in Pennsylvania). Playing down low with Embiid on his side, receiving passes from Simmons, and dishing it out to Redick poses a great foe for Boston and after defeating the Celtics, the Warriors in the Finals. Curry, Durant, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, and Andre Iguodala know James wellm but with two stars and a nasty (good nasty) three point game beside him, LeBron is looking at bringing home his and the Sixers’ fourth NBA Championship. MILWAUKEE BUCKS: It’s not exactly as great as it sounds: teaming Lebron up with the Greek Freak in Giannis Antetokounmpo seems like a dream for Bucks’ fans, but they’re just to similar to be productive. They’re both strong bigman power forwards who usually would be found in the paint, so they need a Kyle Korver or Ray Allen around the three-point line. Unless, Malcolm Brogdon, Khris Middleton, or Eric Bledsoe is that guy, it’s tough to see them coming out of the first round of the playoffs. Then why are the Bucks included in this list? Because the possibility of LeBron. Frankly, every team in the National Basketball Association could be included because of the possibility of LeBron joining their squad, but the Bucks also have a future Hall of Famer with a wingspan longer than the distance from Cleveland to Milwaukee, as well as fair (not great, but fair) shooting and ball-handling. NEW YORK KNICKS: Kristaps Porzingis leads a team that’s like the Cincinnati Reds of basketball. The Knicks have a star player and a lineup with lots of potential, but they’re lacking one key piece. For the Reds, it’s pitching; for the Knicks, it’s a scorer. They’re not merely missing a scorer, Porzingis, Tim Hardaway Jr., and Enes Kanter are all scoring 14+ points per game, but they’re missing an all-around scorer. Every great team has one; Warriors have Durant, Rockets have Harden, Celtics have Al Horford, Jazz have Mitchell, etc. The point is that either they need to groom Trey Burke, Frank Ntilikina, or Michael Beasley to score in the paint and shoot, or they can make a push to get LeBron who would be the addition to Porzingis they need. Although, frankly, getting LeBron is like the part of that episode of Friends where they enter the New York State Lottery. Chandler says that with his being out of a job and since he and Monica are going to start a family, they could really use $384 Million. The Knicks are in great need of scorer, so they could really use arguably the greatest player of all-time. BOSTON CELTICS: Assuming Irving and Hayward stay healthy, Scary Terry Rozier, Horford, Tatum, and Jaylen Brown lead a terrifying team that were eight points from being the kings of the east. They made it to Game Seven against LeBron without two of their stars, so you can only imagine how incredible they’ll be with their stars back. We’ll keep this one short because this has been a long article and it’s fairly obvious how great Boston will be next year. They’ll have the third pick in the pick in the draft, so that'll be another big, low-cost addition to the Championship-caliber team. In terms of acquiring LeBron James, Boston is very interested, as they should be. Of course, they'd need to make cap room, so they'd probably be giving up some lower lineup talent and one to two of their major stars, Irving, Hayward, or Horford. They can keep Brown, Rozier, and Tatum because, as of now, they have rather low-paying contracts. Imagine a lineup where Rozier brings the ball up with Tatum and Brown outside and Horford and LeBron in the paint. There's no lineup who could beat that in a best of seven series, no chance. Jesse A. Cook June 12, 2018 “Teams That Could Beat Golden State”
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