Nuvendil said:
No, the Cavs are not. 96, 97, and 98 Bulls had three hall of fame players leading. Bill Walton and Kevin McHale backed up Larry Bird. The Lakers with Kobe had multiple seasons with teams that had that 2 or 3 future-hall-of-famer lead. That's actually the standard NBA dynasty formula, has been since the early 60s. The Warriors are anomolous, not the Cavs. As for what's wrong with the league, it's a combination of a lot of things. A couple of would-be-contenders didn't pan out, like the Indiana Pacers. Some contender teams broke appart for no good reason like the Thunder. The Lakers are in a rebuilding period. But it's also just the fact that the Cavs and Warriors are exceptional. I mean, regular season back in Jordan's days everyone knew who would win the East, it was never even a question. And the Lakers-Celtics rivalries of the 60s and 80s were similar, with two teams almost always destined to meet in the finals. Periods like this just happen. Plus the playoffs have been less exciting in the east because let's face it, the Celtics might be number 1 but everyone knew that the playoff Cavs ain't the regular season Cavs. |
People forget the West in the 80s was relatively watered down, no one but Houston was able to even get past the Lakers to go to the Finals during the 80s. And the one in '86 was when Ralph Sampson threw up a prayer of a shot (shooting behind him) to barely eliminate the Lakers in the Conference Finals.
And to be fair, the East being bad isn't LeBron's fault. The Sixers have bad luck and had bad management, the Hornets can't get enough talent with Kemba (who's an All-Star, but not necessarily one to revolve a team around to be a contender), the Pacers are a small market even with Paul George, the Raptors don't have enough shooting and Lowrey is injured prone, the Wizards have talent...but mostly in their starting lineup, the Bulls are a mess, even if they surprise us, the Heat are good, but young, the Knicks are...the Knicks, the Nets are...the Nets, etc. LeBron went to a terrible, but young and talented Cavs team and helped turn around careers of Thompson, Irving, and Love, who were great talents but struggled with their respective teams pre-Return.
