Jason Terry is an NBA veteran in the league, at age 39 he can still play ball, being a bench player for the Milwaukee Bucks. But does his skill on the court match his talking off the court? Jason recently went on record to say something that to many sounds absurd, the Cleveland Cavaliers will get beaten by the Chicago Bulls in the Eastern Conference Finals. While Terry did admit that he made this statement before he signed with the Milwaukee Bucks, it still interests me that he has decided to come public with it, considering his team is currently in the playoffs.
It seems as if he is doubting his own teams capabilities of beating the Cavaliers, as they would need to go through them in the second round in order to make the NBA finals. Instead, he believes the Bulls are the team that will move onto the NBA Finals.
Jason Terry gives his Eastern Conference predictions
Jason Terry has come out and told the world what he believes will happen in the Eastern Conference playoffs this year. He has the upmost confidence in the team in Chicago, he believes the red and whites can go a long way. Here's what he had to say:
"My take on Chicago, before the season I picked them to come out of the East to upset Cleveland... I say this because when you have Jimmy Butler, Dwyane Wade and Rajon Rondo, that's somewhat like a big three...
those three guys at their best are pretty darn good".
Even though Wade is past his prime, Rondo is often a streaky player performance wise, and Butler hasn't experienced the finals. The veteran sharpshooter still has major confidence in the boys in Chicago. He continued on why he believes they can do something special, stating:
"One of them has an NBA championship, the other has multiple NBA championships and a finals MVP, then you got a star like Jimmy Butler who's a perennial all-star who is coming into his own while still being young with fresh legs...
they're a confident bunch."
Can they really defeat the Cavaliers in a 7-game series?
If you ask me, I say no. But there are most defiantly some people out here who really feel the Bulls have a chance. And one of them happens to be Mr. Terry. He talked about the Bulls team this season and how they have had ups and downs but in the end managed to squeeze into the playoffs, and added that they can be scary in a series against anyone.
He doubts the Celtics chance at coming back in the first round series as they're currently down 2-1. He added on why he believes the Bulls can dethrone the Cavs, saying:
"You look at the success they had against Cleveland this season, they beat them four times, which nobody else in the league had done... so they're confident."
While Terry may feel very confident saying this because of his 2011 championship win over LeBron's Heat, does he still really believe the things he is saying? As we have seen in the past, regular season success over LeBron and his team doesn't really translate into the playoffs a lot of the time. We've seen LeBron-led teams be swept or destroyed in the regular season before but then the exact opposite has proceeded to happen in the playoffs.
In 2014 the Brooklyn Nets swept LeBron's team in the regular season, and what happened? The Miami Heat defeated them in 5 games in the playoffs. In 2015 the Atlanta Hawks put together an incredible season, outdoing the Cavaliers and finishing the top of the East. And what happened? LeBron's team swept them in the playoffs. In 2016 the Golden State Warriors went 73-9, defeating and embarrassing the Cavs in both their regular season meetings. But what happened? LeBron led the Cavs to a victory over them in the NBA finals. The fact of the matter is, regular season doesn't matter a whole lot in comparison to the playoffs. The Bulls have always had a reasonable amount of success over LeBron led teams in the regular season, but have lost all four playoff series' against the King.
That's a sweep in terms of whole series', 4-0. While Terry makes a good point that the team is very talented, most of us would agree that the Bulls and their "somewhat big three" would have no chance against the Cavs and their championship winning big three and co.
