This moment has been what everybody has been expecting ever since July, ever since Kevin Durant joined the Warriors, making the top teams more dominant and the weak teams even worse. Because of this move, the domination structure in the NBA has changed for the future.
It has been ten months now that the casual fans of the NBA have been trying to convince themselves that the inevitable NBA Finals rematch was not going to happen. Here were are ten months later with the Cavaliers and Warriors being hot favorites to meet each other in the finals for a third straight year.
The Cavaliers and the Warriors have been dominating for the last three seasons
Both the Cavaliers and the Warriors have already advanced to their respective conference finals without losing a game. They have dominated all their opponents so far in their playoffs, and the Cavaliers are squashing rumors that they are vulnerable along the way. It is looking like both teams will likely dominate whomever they meet in the conference finals.
For sure Gregg Popovich could mastermind the greatest playoff performance ever. For sure the Rockets could catch fire from three-point range. It is possible that either John Wall or Isiah Thomas go off every night. Are all these scenarios possible? Yes, will they happen?
Most likely not.
In the first two rounds of the playoffs, no two teams have ever been this dominant. Both the Warriors and Cavaliers are both currently 8-0 in these current playoffs. Which makes it the first time in association history that two teams have started the playoffs 8-0, the most frightening part of this statistic is that this might not be the last time these two times will be dominant.
The Warriors have still got many years of dominance ahead of them. With both Curry and Durant most likely signing long term deals in the upcoming summer.
Draymond Green is under contract for the 2020 season, and until 2019 Klay Thompson is under contract in the Bay Area. Meanwhile in the Eastern Conference as long as Lebron James has a strong supporting cast it will be unlikely that anyone else will come out of the Eastern Conference except the Cavaliers.
This situation will likely be the case for the foreseeable future with both Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving both under contract until 2020.
What can the rest of the league do to stop the dominance
This dominance by these two teams has significant impacts on the remainder of the NBA; the most interesting one is what can the other 28 teams in this league do to compete. For these situations, the objective is no longer how do the western conference teams beat the Warriors or how the eastern conference teams dethrone Lebron from his throne.
These 2017 playoffs so far have shown that none of these questions might have possible answers right now. So the most pressing problem that faces these teams is should they bother interrupting a dynasty that is not likely to end in the foreseeable future.
