Tyler Krenzin
Lantern Staff
The NBA has been the league of two teams for the last 3-4 seasons: The Golden State Warriors and the Cleveland Cavaliers. This is thought to be the staple at least until LeBron James retires; however, today has a different feel. The Cavaliers are like a rocked fighter, just doing anything to keep standing. Don’t get me wrong, having James gives any team a huge advantage, more than any other player. He can’t be the only player on the team. The Cavaliers spent the week of the trade deadline dealing almost every role player, and a star in Isaiah Thomas, for more role players and young up and comers.
This leaves a hole for another team to step into the light. While, yes, no one would be surprised if Cleveland and James took themselves to a fourth straight finals, it seems incredibly unlikely.
In feudalistic society, we find that as soon as a dynasty is about to falter, many small nations are stocked and ready to take on the challenge of being the next dynasty. In regard to basketball, we have three teams that are ready contenders: the Toronto Raptors, the Boston Celtics and the Milwaukee Bucks.
The Boston Celtics are the team that is best set up to take the reins. With young talent like Kyrie Irving, Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum, they are set to be the main contenders long after the LeBron era. Boston is a tricky team to figure out since they have trouble keeping up with teams offensively. When it comes down to it, and when the Celtics need a score, they must turn to Irving. There is no one else on the team that can create their own scoring situation other than Irving. While their role players are much better than the Cavaliers, the fact that they only have one go to scorer puts them into the same rut as Cleveland.
The Milwaukee Bucks have the potential to be the best team in the Eastern Conference. Outside of James, they have the best player in Giannis Antetokounmpo. In theory, they have the deeper bench, but that’s only in theory. The fact of the matter is that the young talent outside of Antetokounmpo just hasn’t panned out. Give the Bucks two more seasons, and they will be the leaders in the East, but for now they’re just an afterthought.
The Toronto Raptors are the team, that in my opinion, will be able to take out James and his Cavaliers. The Raptors, unlike the other teams, have two significant stars on their team. While in the years past DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry have not played well together, whatever disagreement that was holding them back has seemed to be squashed. Lowry and DeRozan have also blown up as stars this year, both being selected as All-Stars in 2018. Role players around the team has fixed the defensive issues that plagued the Raptors in earlier campaigns, and the rise of Jonas Valanciunas as a reliable center have pushed them over the cliff.
While again it would not be surprising at all if the broken Cavaliers suddenly turned it around in the coming weeks and made themselves a contender again. It looks unlikely that they will even be in the top three seeds.
