I know that this article is late, but it's better late than never right? This past Sunday we saw the NBA season come to a close and what a close it was. In the best of a seven-game series the best team won it and deserves to be the champs. So in this article, we will go back in time and take a look at the past NBA season, as well as look at what is going on now, and finally take a look into a crystal ball (not really because I'm not a gypsy) but we will try to predict some of the biggest moves and look at the big moves that have already happened. So come along on this bumpy ride of nostalgia you might remember somethings that you wanted to forget and you might not know of somethings that you didn't hear about.
Past
Well it's only fitting now that we look at this past NBA season and remember all the good that happened. Like for instance it only took 11 games in the season for the Houston Rockets to fire coach Kevin McHale (as seen below). Although he was the man that led them to the Western Conference Finals last season but who's keeping track of that? Clearly not the Rockets. But if anyone is to blame for this firing, it's the tall man that fired two other coaches on his last two teams he was with. (cough, Dwight Howard, cough).
Also another man that was fired by their team (or should I say the real voice of the team cough, LeBron, cough), David Blatt. (as seen below). This man didn't really do anything, but maybe that was the problem. He did lead the team to the NBA Finals last season only to lose it in the first game when Kyrie went down. Clearly though, this move did not hurt the Cavs in the end. Maybe it was a good move by their part. Also there was the firings of Derek Fisher (that did not last long), Lionel Hollins and Jeff Hornacek.
But enough about the bad, let's look at the good that this past season gave us. For starters did anyone else think that Golden State was going to be that good even without their head coach Steve Kerr? He started 24-0, the best that the NBA has ever seen, and that was with with the assistant coach Luke Walton. Now, I know he probably didn't have too much to do about it the winning streak, but he does have great experience being a bench player so he's probably a good motivational speaker. The Golden State Warriors also did the impossible when they set a new record with 73 wins and 9 losses.
We did have few sad moments of this season especially when we lost the head coach of the Minnesota Timberwolves Flip Saunders after a battle with Hodgkins Lymphoma. Another sad but great moment for the NBA came when we heard that the "Black Mamba" Kobe Bryant was retiring. He had spent 20 years in the league with one team, and he saved us one last lasting memory on his final game where he scored 60 points and his final words on the court were, "Mamba, out."
Present
So now that we have the past out of the way, what do we look at now? Well one thing is for sure, you have to give credit to the Cleveland Cavaliers for several reasons: A) staying healthy to beat the champs. B) coming back from a 3 game to 1 deficit. C) for the fans standing behind their team even when it looked like they were never going to be champs because let's face it, the Eastern Conference isn't that strong compared to the Western Conference but they cheered and backed them 100 percent. The team, the organization and the fans of Cleveland deserve this.
Future
Coming up in a few days, the free agent market will open and a few players have already opted out of their contracts. Manu Ginolbli was the biggest surprise to me that he opted out but he still could resign with the Spurs just take a smaller pay cut. Also probably the biggest name out there in Kevin Durant. Where could he end up? Both the Warriors and the Spurs have publicly said that they will make a push for him, but I don't see where he would fit on either team. My best guess is that he hears the offers but he stays in OKC and signs a 2 to 3-year deal because he knows that his team is on the verge of winning a title, but if he gets an offer from an Eastern Conference team knowing that it's easier to win that conference, he may take that deal. Toronto has quite a few big free agents that if they don't sign will be devastating to their team (unrestricted free agents Bismack Biyombo and DeMar DeRozan). Both had massive successes this season, and even though they came up short it gave Toronto hope. And speaking of teams, the whole bench of the Warriors will be free agents. A great amount of interest will be focused on all of them.
The NBA season maybe over with but the best part is coming up in the off-season. Where will anyone go is anybody's guess, but it sure is going to be fun to watch it all happen this summer.
